Frost, Rain…No Flowers= Glum Gardener

I tried to stay upbeat, I really did, but the way spring has turned I feel rather glum today. Puddleglum Glum. Anyhoo… I look out my windows and with the rain I can’t garden, the frost left the magnolias tormented and now dead looking, the rest of the spring flowers pretty spare. Ah well.

I did, however, put some work into getting my tulips page updated and online, Just Tulips. In a normal year, I would suggest visiting gardens to see examples of tulips that you like, but this year I’m not sure how the tulips are faring. My Darwins hadn’t opened yet, but the flowers and their foliage are all flopped over. The useful thing about checking out spring blooms is that you usually order bulbs long after you’ve forgotten all about spring, but if you write down the garden combinations and varieties of tulips that you like now, it helps when ordering from catalogs,etc. I think it makes more of a difference with tulips than it does with other fall-planted spring-blooming bulbs; tulips have such differing heights bloomtimes and colors that seeing them in real life makes so much of a better visualization.

I also wrote a little something on the Renegade Gardener’s 2007 perennial choices. I love the plants he considers premium plants for the garden- definitely going to look for those this year!