April 15, 2007
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Today I went to the tulip farm. It turned out to be a huge event with hundreds of people and long lines for the tractor-driven ride through the fields. There were rows and rows of each color, with a sign at the foot of the row so you could find it in your book. The photo didn’t always look exactly like the flower but when I got home the pictures on the computer did. The booklet gave you the date it bloomed and the height of the plant so that at any given time next April I will have several sizes and colors blooming. I just ordered 130 tulip bulbs.
That’s not all, either. On their website you can order daffodils, hyacinth, and any other spring bulb. I got a little of everything which amounted to 100 more bulbs. Yikes. I was feeling rich though because I didn’t have to pay federal taxes for some reason. I also thought that because April can be such a mind-fuck with the weather here, having flowers blooming all month would distract me.
The sun comes out just long enough to change into something springish for a nice walk but by the time you get outside it’s clouding over. You go back in and get a sweater and decide to drive instead. By the time you reach your destination it’s pouring. So you get back in your car and drive home and just as you pull into the driveway the sun comes out and you start peeling your layers off. Even though it’s my favorite season it still drives me crazy.
Comments (20)
weathers been back and forth here too…when my parents visited we went to the orchid “farms”…gorgeous stuff
Ours is a bit more predictable: cold in the morning, warms up to warm in the spring or hot in the summer, then gets cold again in the evening. Drives visitors crazy because they can’t look outside and figure out how to dress for the day. Layers is the answer. The bulbs sound gorgeous! All the tulips were blooming back in DC.
It’s time for you to start taking pictures young lady, how in the world are we ever going to see these gorgeous flowers if you don’t???
My tulips were here at my house when I bought it, I always add about 20-45 bulbs of Gladiolis a year though as they do freeze out at times. marilyn
the first year in this house i planted tulips as they are my fav flower…they bloomed…gorgeous…and then the texas hail came and made chopped salad of them. i haven’t had the heart to do it again.
the farm sounds like a piece of heaven to me…
past tulips here, but I’ll be back across the Atlantic for west Michigan “Tulip Time” – always beautiful, always too many wacky seniors driving too slowly and stopping randomly.
130 tulips equal to a lot of time planting, a lot of money(paying), and great joy!
I do love spring bulbs. I want to love perennials more and am working on it, but tulips are my favorites. (Sunflowers are good in the summer, too.)
LOL! Our weather’s like that, too. I LOVE the moisture…although it nearly kills me before it breaks, but without it, my sinuses are murder! lol!
I’m an autumn type person, myself.
I admire the fact that you got so many flowers! I hope the work you put into them is rewarding!
I love you, Pru…GFW
Yeah, I was in Portland! I definitely would have called you but we were only there for a little more than three days and my dad wanted us to spend as much time as possible with the family. Maybe we can go up this summer with my mom.
She was working, I guess. I can have her call you again if you want. And my dad’s brother is ten years younger than him, so he’s only 37.
Yeah, this weather is making me crazy, too!
Hot Rod Man is definitely not the gardener in this family. When he put in a bed of tulips a few years back he chose all the same kind (against my advice), so it creates a beautiful show but it’s over very quickly. He complains about this every spring, and swears that he will dig up and divide the bulbs and add in some that bloom later so the show will be longer. Of course, by fall, he forgets. If I had time I’d drag him out to the tulip farm now so he could place an order!
It is driving me crazy too. I need to get out and exercise more, but all I can do is walk in this cold. And since I stopped smoking I have been noshing more apparently and I need to work this gut off.
I love the spring flowers though. They are sassy always coming up when things look mucked everywhere else.
ryc: I wanted to make the switch before I was so far behind that I didn’t feel like learning it all. I am gong to schedule private classes. God, I hope whoever teaches me smells good. I wonder if that would be an inappropriate thing to request.
did you take pics? i heard the fields are memorable some years!
…there is something therapeutic about gardening…and gratification in the immediacy of tulips.
Wow! 130 tulip bulbs! That’s going to be beautiful. I only have about 12 tulip bulbs right now waiting for warmer weather. I was so excited to finally see grass sprouts and tiny little Forget-Me-Not leaves coming up this week.
I’d love to get the address of the website you order from. We only have 2 nurseries in town, and they are both very expensive.
Thank you. Your words are encouraging as ever. I was hoping you would tell me more of how I could do a better sketch of a character. It is a fun way to practice writing but I will try harder not to sound so negative or critical of the characters I want to describe.
RYC: I love looking for ways to my perspective shots…:) marilyn
Website, please, pretty please. I don’t think I’ll be getting 100 bulbs. I’m going to have a lot in the summer, but I do need more than the few daffodils and jonquils I have here on spring.
oh the tulip fields. I’m missing that beauty this year…
I used to have a lovely garden but then I moved into the rainforest and its impossible without a gardener coming in two or three times a week. The bush is relentless, its hard enough just to keep a patch of land cleared around the house. I do miss the spring flowers of tulips and grape hyacinths and narcissi though. I wish you joy with your bulbs.