Home Again

Although we enjoyed our vacation last week, it was also really nice to come home. One reason for this was that we were greeted by a green lawn and a low of colorful bulbs in full bloom:

If you have no trouble growing hyacinths, this probably isn’t that exciting to you. For me, though, these are the best I’ve ever managed to grow. This is probably due to the extra sun they’re getting, since once again, another fence section fell during the winter. 

Since these are growing in the cutting garden, I cut some to bring inside. I love the way they smell, and a little goes a long way.

The other big flower story this week is that our orange tulips are blooming:

This picture, taken on an overcast day, doesn’t really do them justice. They are a much more fiery shade in real life, which looks great against the yellow paint of the house (and will look even better once we finish that paint job). 

Last fall I planted another 100 orange Darwin tulip bulbs to replace lost ones and add to the driveway side of the perennial border, where previous there had been daffodils that have since disappeared:

And from the looks of it, close to every one came up, some with two or three flowers per stem! It’s quite a show, and these have held up beautiful for over two weeks so far, even with the rain, wind and wild temperature swings. Now if they just come back next year, we’ll really be in business! Even if I have to replenish them every couple years, it’s totally worth it for the color in April.