My bulb project, Before picture #1

Another picture of the Exotic Emporer tulips, fully opened up. They aren't fringed and they're not Parrott tulips-- would you call it just a double?

Spring Green tulips are showing their colors.

One of the pink/purple underplantings here is Pulmonaria "Raspberry Splash" , something new for me. It has been very pretty in all the seasons-- evergreen, with grey-green spotted leaves. The flowers are showing up better than I expected. I like the way it looks mixed with the violas and pansies, etc.

The Mexican plum trees are blooming now. The summer snowflakes are doing well underneath them, but I'm not sure if I'll be seeing some of the other little bulbs-- the various ipheions. Maybe they're late-- but maybe they just haven't gotten enough sun.

Avalanche still going strong. But look at the size of that foliage... and there's so much of it! That's not going to be a pretty sight to live with, while it dies down.

Lemon Beauty daffodils are starting to bloom. I'd like them more if they held their heads up a little higher, so we could see the flower better.

Anemone coronaria. The bright green, ferny foliage has been pretty for weeks now. The flowers have a purple center ringed with rosy red, and the white petals. When I planted them, the instructions said to just plant the little stick-like things on their sides, because it's all but impossible to tell which end is up.

gemini-sage, My daughter had her bridal photos taken on the walkway with the tulips. The ceremony part of the wedding was in a different part of the yard though. She came in on a walkway with Ice Follies daffodils on each side.

It's been so nice to enjoy the garden and the Spring weather this week, with all the pressure off. Aaahhh...lovely.

You did a fantastic job on your spring garden, Nancy - beautiful. I am normally not a big fan of white flowers excepting maybe peonies but I have to say your display was phenomenal and you made great choices to combine for a dazzling effect. Appropriate colors for a wedding too. Your tulips are well ahead of mine - I have several in bud but not a single bloom yet. The daffodils and hyacinths however are at peak.

Steve, thank you so much. You've been a great Dave's Garden friend through this bulb project. There are just a few things left to bloom -- Spanish Bluebells, a couple of tulip and daffodil varieties, and some Byzantine gladiolas. Besides those, my bulb project has pretty much "done its thing". Now I have to decide whether to let the foliage die down on the Fosteriana tulips or any of the others. Most people advise that it's not worth it.

Now we wait and see what this weather dishes out tonight and tomorrow. What a year!

Nancy, I would leave a patch of the Fosterianas in place just to see what happens next year. that is one of the better tulip groups for return. You may not get as many next year as this, and they may be slightly smaller, but if your ground is dry in the summer I would bet a few will come back. you could do it with a small area just as an experiment. I would love to see your results - so do it for me!

Honestly, tulip return here is not great, but I have a patch in front of my house that is returning with SOME flowers (albeit somewhat sparser than each year prior) for four years now - and that is no joke. The ground is somewhat sandy and extremely well-drained and does not get tons of supplemental water during the summer. Mine are Single lates. And I noticed this week I have others coming up that were planted in fall of 2007 on the bed opposite the one I just mentioned. Both beds line the driveway. I want to see how many come back.

Let me help you with your next passion, which should be lilies! In fact you could plant them intermixed among your spring bulbs in the fall - so when the spring bulbs are done, you have a glorious new set of plants to take over. And all major lily groups except the Orientals thrive/perennialize/multiply like crazy here. They have white Asiatics, white LA's, white easter lilies, white OT's, and white trumpets. I bet i would all look phenomenal. And most (except the Asiatics) are fragrant. My lilies multiply faster than daffodils and are every bet equal to narcissi as naturalizers/perennializer, and actually multiply more prolifically.

NLaw: I have been so busy with hyacinths that I just discovered your thread and all I can say is "Well done!"! Those walks lined with white tulips and the swaths of narcissus...achingly beautiful, like moonlight against the darker shrubs and trees and sooo... romantic. Perfection.

Chris

Steve -- you're ON with the lilies! Thanks so much for offering to help me. I would love to try some. The pictures I've seen, of yours, are just gorgeous.

Can I find some varieties that mainly bloom in late Spring and early Fall? We're out of town a lot in the summer and I just don't want to put much into things that are blooming the best at that time.

This will be fun!

Chris, Thank you so much! I was going for that moonlight garden thing (and fragrance) , with the wedding and all.

I've been following your hyacinth threads too. What a beautiful collection! I'm sure I'll branch out into hyacinths before too long, with eye candy like yours and Steve's to entice me.

Nancy

Nancy, late spring, yes; early fall, likely not. One disadvantage to where we live is that EVERYthing blooms about a month earlier than what our counterparts experience up north, and most of the bloomtimes you se in the catalogues refer to a zone 5 garden - so I always subtract a month roughly from that.

The latest I have had any lily bloom here is early August and then just very few. The high heat is hard on many of them so even if they do bloom then they don't look great. However, I do get wonderful and heavy bloom from late April/early may through all of june and even the first week or so ofJuly. Asiatics/Easter lilies first, then LA's, then trumpets, then OT's and Orientals (I have just a few) last. There is also overlap between groups depending on particular variety.

Below are examples of the garden at various points - these are all from my established bed and I will try to get from a similar angle, so these have all been in the ground at least two seasons and are not new plantings.

This is from May 23, 2008 (planted fall 2007)

May 23, 2009 - not the best pic but you can see much denser foliage, multiplication, and plants are much larger...excuse the still-not-decayed daff foliage LOL

May 31, 2008

May 30, 2009

One more set - June 17, 2008

June 17, 2009 - the first year isn't often that spectacular but by years 2 and 3 the results can be impressive. I am eager to see what this year's blooms look like and the lilies are now sprouting through the surface.

OK, one more set - side garden - June 7, 2008

June 7, 2009

June 14, 2009 with more open

Steve, love the pictures.

Thanks Rita! Here is one more - only to show Nancy how well lilies progress over the years - this one is from around May 22, 2009, since bloom times are more staggered from the first year - two years after planting the LA's you can barely see in the picture posted 2:21 today from 2008....see the orangish ones to the left (Swansea) and the ywllowish ones to the right - and the size difference after a second year is dramatic. The Swanseas were >5 ft tall which is really big for an LA.

I just thought my bulbs were through. They're still coming up. I have especially loved the Spring Green tulips combined with the Species tulip, Lady Jane, and Raspberry Sage.

Some yellow and yellow/red clusiana tulips.

Yellow and pink clusiana tulips. I can't remember the names of any of these species tulips except the Lady Jane ones.

JT Scheepers tuips and purple aubrieta. And lots of cedar elm weeds. They have been horrible this year. I hope never to forget the pre-emergent treatment again.

The first iris in this area, with some yellow tulips and daffodils.

Closeup of the Spring Green Tulips before they were open. (I think this one will display right side up...)

Oops, I had already posted that Spring Green picture before.

Here are some Weisse Berliner tulips planted with "Snow Princess" alyssum, which is the best alyssum I've ever had.

I took a field trip to the Dallas Blooms display at the Dallas Arboretum last week. I've scoped out some pretty tulips to try next year, on a smaller scale. Since I'm not having another wedding (that I know of!) none are white! I loved the colors of Marit, Russian Princess, Beau Monde, and Apricot Parrott tulips.

The Maureen tulips were the first to sprout, so I expected them to bloom early. What they did instead was to keep growing taller and taller. They are standing at attention like little soldiers. Their stems are strong; we've certainly had some high winds this year to test that. They sway,but they haven't been damaged.

Those are gorgeous, Nancy! Glad to see you have a second "show" in progress!

Thanks, Steve! I've been surprised that the Spanish Bluebells are coming out this late. It may be one of those "first year" things. Some other old ones bloomed two or three weeks ago

How are your peonies looking? Big and full of buds, I'll bet. This should be an exciting year for peonies. I've been enjoying your fabulous daffodils. Such a beautiful display.
Nancy

Here are the bluebells.