My Tulips

Hi SG - your tulips are lovely - you can get such a wide variety of colours can't you ? I don't have any in my garden at the moment but may set some for next year. Like you I would just leave them in the ground all the time - I can't do with plants that have to be dug up before the winter comes and replanted afterwards.

Have a happy gardening time.

Thank you Mariek. It would be impossible for me to lift the majority of them because they are naturalised in the lawns. They have been in for years and it is the daffs and narcissus which I am finding are not so happy. I am feeding them half strength tomato food as recommended to another member so hope for better results next year. The shapes and colours are exquisite. I never pay a lot for bulbs preferring to wait until they are reduced. My excuse is that I hate to see them go to waste.

I have grown to love tulips S.gran and intend to plant lots this autumn. Like you I like suprises, to my mind that is what gardening is all about. We call the squirrels a pesky pest, but look what they have done with your tulips, wonderful!!

My friend lives in Edinburgh. A large woodland area behind her garden is home to many squirrels. We were having coffee one am when she got up and dashed outside shouting "I will kill him". When she came back she told me that the squirrels are the best gardeners in town. They come into the gardens and help themselves to all the best bulbs and replant them in the woods. It makes for a delightful spring walk. He had just pinched the last of her large parrot tulips which had cost her a fortune.

Oh well what can you do except put barbed wire everywhere and that would not be nice would it? Its funny though to think the woods are nicer than your garden!!

Like you Scotsgran I never take my bulbs up, but me thinks I shall have to replace stocks as we only had half a dozen daffs left this year and not many more Tulips.

Grandmage the squirrels there have at least one hundred gardens to plunder for the best plants. I think the owners are all quite pleased that their bulbs have been specially selected. I did ask why no one follows the squirrels and pinches their own bulbs back again. I was told nobody would dream of digging up anything in the woods. LOL no accounting for human nature. I don't think even barbed wire would keep squirrels out.
Stroller I have read that you should dig up bulbs every three years and split the clumps to encourage more flowers but it is too hard work digging up lawn to do it. I am hoping a good feed this year will save some of ours. If not we shall just have to buy more. I would not plant them in the lawn again as my husband finds it very hard work clearing the leaves away because he cannot bear to allow them to die right back. They get very wet and slimy and encourage snails.

love the frilly tulips scotsgran and your heachera to ;o))

Thank you. I used to have 5 of these frilly tulips San and I had hoped they might increase but I think the squirrels have taken them. This is the only one left and I found it broken off. I will invest in some new ones in the autumn. Photos 6 and 7 above are both the same heuchera but taken one in the am and one pm. They not only change colour with the seasons but look like different plants when viewed with different coloured tulips.

i found lots of my bulbs had turned to mush scotsgran, so maybe it got to cold this winter for them, your may have gone the same way, my heacheras are getting flowers already, everything is coming along quicker with all the sun we have had, at this rate wont have anything for summer lol

These were in pots San and the pots had been raided. I thought at first it might be mice but they don't carry away the whole bulb and flowering stalk so the later ones I would say are the squirrels. I'll need to put notices up saying 'fat balls and nuts that way >>>>>'
You are not supposed to plant tulips until late in the year because of the danger of frost on the emerging foliage and you should dig them up and dry them because they can rot in the wet ground but they are quite cheap and if they survive that is a bonus, I have neither the time nor the space to go to all that bother. Since I fed the foliage with the tomato food I can see lots of Winston Churchill foliage coming up so I might be lucky and find I have flowers again next year. My heucheras are also starting to flower. In fact everything is flowering like mad, rhodos, apples, cherries, rowans etc etc.

Very nice. Tulips are so colourful and always brighten up a garden. That pink one reminded me of a Mivy lol Do you remember those ... :o))

No Hywel I don't think I do but since I am older than you maybe we knew it by another name. Please tell me what was it.

It's spelt Mivvi I found out lol. It was a raspberry lolipop with icecream inside. I haven't seen them since the 60s

I do seem to recall a flat shaped lollipop with various flavours of fruit ice on the outside and ice cream inside but I don't recall the name. It sounds delicious. I went right off ice cream when they brought a soft creamy version on to the market "Mr Something". I was brought up on real ice cream made by the Italian cafe and ice cream shop owners which was soft but not cloying. They are getting harder and harder to find nowadays.

Yes the Italian icecream is the nicest.