When it's spring again, I'll bring again ...
By balcony
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When it’s spring again, I’ll bring again …
… Tulips from “Balcony’s balcony!”
Sorry I couldn’t resist it!
But Tulips are SO cheerful, aren’t they? When we got back from our month in Cuenca, after my mother-in-law’s death & burial, & after so many “misadventures” getting there & back (enough material there for a couple of blogs – but I won’t weary your patience with them, at least not today!) it gave me great happiness to see the Mini-Daffs & Mini-Tulips all starting to flower – just in time to welcome us back home!
You may find it difficult to believe but the very same day we returned to the UK (22nd March) it snowed in many places in Spain! That includes Madrid & Cuenca, both cities in the deepest interior of the Iberian Peninsular.
But, as usual, I digress, what was I talking about? Ah, yes, the Tulips on the balcony! Here then are a few snapshots I’ve taken over the week or so since we returned:
Tulips sprouting on balcony table 20th February 2017:
This is how some of them looked just a couple of days before we left, in a hurry, to go to my mother-in-law’s deathbed in Cuenca hospital:
Mini Tulips on balcony railing in brown trough 23rd March 2017:
What a difference a month makes!
Mini Daffs & Tulips on balcony railings in dark green trough:
Mini Tulips on balcony railing in brown trough:
Tulips & Mini Daffs flowering in trough on balcony floor:
Tulips flowering in white trough on balcony railings just yesterday, 30th March:
Tulips flowering in brown trough on balcony railings yesterday:
Tulips flowering in dark green trough on balcony railings as seen from outside of balcony:
Tulips flowering in white trough on balcony railings seen from outside;
And to finish this blog I’ve put in 3 photos of the progress
of a few named Tulips, ‘Double Romance’. My wife saw these in a shop in town in the autumn & liked them so I got them for her & planted them in a couple of pots to themselves – without any mini-Daffs, as you will have seen in the previous photos.
Tulips ‘Double Romance’ just starting to flower on balcony railings on 24th March 2017, just a day after we got back home:
Here they are again, a couple of days later:
What a difference just a couple of days make!
This is the last photo I took of them yesterday, 30th March:
They may not be from “Amsterdam”, as in the famous song, but they are from our balcony & I must thank everyone who posted photos last year of Tulips as they inspired me to want some on the balcony again this spring.
31 Mar, 2017
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Comments
It is lovely to see how tulips give pleasure to people all over the world, either in pots or in the garden. I am a bit bias as I grew up with tulips all around me and as a child have been taught the importance of the tulip bulb in the golden age in Holland. For my wedding bouquet I had a small posy of beautiful white tulips. Thank you for your lovely display of wonderful tulips!
1 Apr, 2017
That must have been a very cheering "welcome home" sight Balcony! Tulips have such a long season too, with all the various varieties. Don't you think they are so much nicer growing than as cut flowers?
1 Apr, 2017
Such wonderful shapes and colours.
1 Apr, 2017
lovely tulips balcony. they are very cheerful.
1 Apr, 2017
Beautiful just love the colours. :O)
1 Apr, 2017
So bright and welcoming
1 Apr, 2017
That's a wonderful sight to see on your return home!
1 Apr, 2017
Looking good my friend. Will you be keeping the pots indoors in the winter. It's nice to have something to look at in February when they start to shoot again.
1 Apr, 2017
Thank you for your wonderful comments - I'm very pleased that you like the Tulips so much! I certainly love them but find they are only good really for one year. I hate to throw away plant material especially bulbs! I've tried several times over the years to keep Tulip bulbs for a 2nd year but they never come to anything! :-((
Unlike Daffodils, Hyacinths, Crocuses & many others of our common spring bulbs I find they are only good the year they flower. Even though I let the foliage die down naturally, like the other bulbs, when I lift them I find they have "disintegrated" or "shattered" into lots of tiny bublets that don't resist the summer & can't be kept till autumn.
I don't have space on the balcony to keep plants from one season to another in permanent plantings. I need to take them out when they have finished to make way for the following season's flowers. I can successfully keep Daffodils, Hyacinths even Crocuses from one season to another & still get them to grow & flower the following year.
A few years ago I put some Tulips in the strawberry planter I have on the balcony thinking I could leave them undisturbed & give them the sort of conditions they prefer but the following year I got a couple of poor flowers & the 3rd year just a few leaves but no flowers! Yet my friend Gerry had Tulips growing on his allotment for over ten years & he never touched them yet they flower every year!
2 Apr, 2017
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Its magic how they get on with it by themselves !
1 Apr, 2017