Tulips Take the Stage As the Crow Flies

Oh, look what's happened near that bright yellow tulip: a paler variety has been revealed. It's moments like this when I start to think of the progression of the garden as a sort of staged performance.

That bright yellow was the first to appear, singing it's little solo and establishing the theme. And now we get the harmony part as this second player emerges from the wings.

Just to take the theme a little further...here's a trio of back-up singers, and look kids, it's those orange tulips I was anticipating yesterday!

It's interesting to note the difference in the variety of plant. The purple and yellow tulips' bulbs appear to put up multiple plants, from the ground up...whereas this orange variety sends up a single stem, that in this case has branched into three. A nice surprise, that.

Of course I'll show them to you again when they're all singing together. What's the point of going to a show if you get up and leave the concert hall before the big finish?

The pansies are responding well to regular dead- heading, and spreading themselves into wonderful little clumps of flowers.

Here they line the paving stones I've made in years past. I have a great little mold for the purpose. I hope to make a few new ones later this season.

The green patch to the left is a nice spreading clump of creeping phlox...deep pink. It opened a few first buds last week, but they are not to be found now. I'll have to look more closely in the morning to see if they have been nibbled, or if the rain earlier in the week took down the fragile little flowers.

The green bit to the right is a patch of pink carnations I rejuvenated in Eastham, after finding it buried under the seashell path of a former tenant. It bloomed for me for the first time last summer, and I'm happy to see it spreading itself a little more since the fall transplanting.

Of course the foreground shows you how some of the roses are progressing already. This is one of two roses which were already here on the fence when I showed up to build the rest of the garden around them, so I don't know quite what to expect from it, flower-wise.

It's kind of cool to think that some morning next month, I'll walk outside to a wonderful surprise. Hopefully, it's not one of those varieties that's had the sweet fragrance bred out of it.

On a break at work late this afternoon, I had the pleasure of watching the antics of a few crows in the gardens around the parking lot.


There's a fair-sized community of them living in the tall pines around the neighborhood of the restaurant.

In fact, the variety of trees planted on the grounds support a pretty diverse community of birds, who're always good for a moment's distraction on a lovely day. Today was certainly one of those, with temps climbing into the high sixties and we enjoyed it.

Tomorrow, more rain is on the way, just when a fresh fall of it will be helpful. If it's not raining too hard early in the a.m., I'll see about planting some seeds to take advantage of the welcome moisture.

There's a bit of wind expected, too...just enough that when I got home from work tonight, I went out with a flashlight and covered over the sunflower seedlings with their plastic tents, to offer a little protection to their still-tender stalks.