Hoping for pretty little blossoms

The last two days I have pushed my body past it’s breaking point in the name of gardening and spring beauty. But if I get daffodil and tulip blooms in a few weeks, I will be okay with the day or 2 of extra pain I endured (so worse than my “normal” chronic pain)! So let’s hope all the work and ache is worth it!

In October 2019, finally, after years of wanting to do it, I planted tulip, daffodil, and hyacinth bulbs. I had never done it before, so was really hoping I did it right and that they actually came up in the spring. As spring 2020 began, my efforts were rewarded with little peeks of green, sprouting from the cold earth. I was beyond excited. It worked!

As they began to bloom, I was both happy and a little disappointed. I was so thrilled to finally have early spring flowers! I had envied them in other’s yards for years. And now mine was finally graced with their delightful presence. But…the daffodils seemed lonely, sparsely popping up throughout the mulch. And the tulips, supposedly red, yellow, orange, and a few other colors, were all pink or pinky purple. I have no idea what happened with the colors. One lone scarlet tulip eventually bloomed among the rest. But I don’t know where the rest of the colors went! And the daffodils…well apparently I just didn’t know what I was doing when planting them. As I walked around our neighborhood, I realized that daffodils look best in bunches. And mine were not even close to bunched. Each plant was companionless.

As they began to spring forth from the ground again this year, I decided that I would try to fill them in this coming fall. That meant probably having to mark where each flower was since it would be hard to figure out where to plant the new bulbs otherwise. I wasn’t looking forward to that.

And then, as I was walking into Walmart the other day. I saw a possible solution! They had potted bulbs that were just coming out of the dirt. So not like fully blooming plants like you often see inside the store in the fresh cut flower department, because I know those need to be dried and planted in the fall. But this was outside, looking like they do in my yard. I thought this was worth a shot. I could possibly get more spring colors in my yard THIS year. AND I could plant them, being able to see where my current flowers are located. So no marking for the fall. I bought a whole bunch and set out to plant them as soon as possible.

Back to the beginning. I love gardening, but it really, really wrecks my back and sucks out my energy. So I hope it’s worth it. I hope in the coming weeks, I see new flowers gracing my yard with a burst of new colors. For my back’s sake and also because I just so very much want more pretty little blossoms in my yard. If not, then on to the fall.