Kilobulb Planters 2013

I love your terraces. Do you have other bulbs in the same area after the daffodils are done?

Those belgium block terraces just have those daffs in the middle, I plant annuals in there later for summer color.

Just gorgeous Rita, keep those pictures coming.

Wow Rita, you have a great show in your garden! How lovely!

This is just the beginning of the tulips. And lots and lots of daffs still to come also.

The rain and cool weather this week have been perfect for the bulbs! Things are developing nicely in the border (the muscari are starting to put on a show) and in the three large beds I devote to tulips. It won't be long before we see some color! It is supposed to be cool but pleasant today - I think my garden helper and I will clean the patio bring the garden furniture out of the basement for the season.

Haven't seen a singly tulip bud in the yard yet, and I'm in a warmer zone than you are (hmmm). Your tulips are filling in beautifully, and you are certain to have quite a show. I don't know how you pull them. You truly are a kilobulb planter!

Is that a lovely cherry tree blossoming in the center of your garden or just an early JM?

Your gardens are so lovely I can't wait to see photos all summer long. Real garden envy going on here. Do you do only spring bulbs or do you have lots of lilies and other summer blooming bulbs?

LOL Cathy! I'm interested in growing everything I can. As much as I love spring bulbs, I also love iris, peonies, lilies (of all types) and daylilies.

Yes, the tree is a weeping cherry I planted 6-7 years ago. It's just getting ready to bloom. Pic #1 is from this morning. Pic #2 is from March 20 last year - obviously, things were exceptionally early last year.

The first tulip to bloom in my garden this year is a fluke - this little bulb somehow got stuck by my compost pile and is blooming. I figure it was either one I discarded in the compost pile and it fell out somehow, or one of my squirrel friends moved it from somewhere else. I took this photo April 9, when I took vege scraps to the compost pile after lunch. I was amused that my first tulip of the season was an accident.

Here is my mystery tulip. Picture from before the rain. It is blooming in amoung where I planted the Rembrant mixture of tulips and this one is certainly not a Rembrandt. It is short, tomato red and has mottled leaves which is typical of Kaufmanniana or Greigii tulips. I did plant Showwinner Kaufmanniana in the bottom terrace but I thought it was blood red (hasn't bloomed yet) but I didn't plant any up in that section. Or so I think. Humm, mysteries.

Wow, the tulip bed looks great! It won't be too long now til buds with color show. We always look forwards to your stunning tulips displays!

Leawood, I take it back. I was just outside and did see one tulip bud! The yard guys were here on Wednesday and now you can see the peonies starting to take off. Not a lily in sight so far. More lilies to be planted along with calla lilies and caladium. Guess we really are kilobulb planters. Sure didn't think it was that many when I got them.

Our weeping cherry is probably more than 50 years old and 40 feet high. Blooms for about a week to ten days.

Showwinner Kaufmanniana tulips started to bloom today.

Don't you love the foliage on the Kaufmania tulips, Rita?

Don't care one way or another. I grow tulips for the blooms. I do see that they are mottled but mottled or plain makes no difference to me.

I only have a few tulips with those markings parallel to the veins. I've always felt they were special.

First year for mottled ones for me. But the blooms are very pretty.

I find the foliage extremely attractive. I'd love to have these in some high-traffic area where everyone could enjoy the beauty of the foliage as well as the blooms.

What got me interested is the fact that they are perennial. Don't have to dug up and don't have to be replanted.

I'm a big fan of the mottled/striped foliage on some (most?) of the greggii & kaufmannia tulips. I also love some of the newer tulips with striped margins on their leaves (usually white, but there are a couple with some pink also).

Speaking of interesting foliage, I notice some of the double peony tulips in my bed have red markings on the leaf. It only appears in some of them, and is evenly distributed around the bed, so I assume it is a characteristic of one of the 7 varieties I planted in this bed. I looked in the catalog, but it didn't mention the foliage of any of the varieties, so I'll watch to see which variety has the unusual leaf markings.

The warm weather yesterday and overnight has caused the buds to grow dramatically. They look like little fists about to open, instead of the usual tulip bud shape. I hope the weather is cool for a few days so the blooms last.

The bulbs I've planted in past years along the fence are now in bloom. The tulip is 'Pinocchio', a Greigii variety. The 'Thalia' narcissus are also starting to bloom. I love them for their sweet fragrance and long-lasting bloom. In the last photo is the Celadon Poppy, a woodland native that seems happy in my shady border. It is among the first plants to bloom in the spring and the blooms continue through June.

This message was edited Apr 14, 2013 9:31 AM

Looks a bit like she's blushing. Drastic weather changes can have some unusual effects. Except for the fact that the reticulated iris are gone, the gardens are moving along quite nicely.

Sweet! Oh, that big tulip bed is going to be spectacular!

Yesterday's warm weather, followed by rain and cooler weather today, caused the bulbs to grow dramatically overnight. The orange hyacinths in my sun garden have really taken off (and the fragrance is intoxicating) and the beds of tulips have really grown. The bed by the columns contains a collection of red and white tulips that I bought at the end of the season. I guess the white tulips in the collection bloom a little earlier than the others, since all that is open so far is the white variety.

My bed of peony-flowering double tulips by the street (7 different varieties) has also grown overnight. It looks like we'll have blooms there by next week.

Daffodil Cum Laude and then a front yard section where my Gudoschnick tulips will soon bloom.

daffs

Wonderful Rita! I'll bet your neighbors love the show!

After a cold, rainy week, we're having a nice cool, sunny day - perfect for bulbs. My 'Red Passion Tulip Blend', purchased late last fall on sale, is turning out to be less than I'd hoped.

The description reads"A selection of some of the best varieties with bright reds, brilliant scarlet, and deep rose in exciting types like Parrots and Mayflowering. Exotic shapes and colors like Esrella Jijinveld, one of our most popular Parrot Tulips make this blend distinct."

So far, most of the blooms are white, with a sprinkling of red single tulips. I'm going to remain optimistic, however, since the description also says "40 days of flowers!" - maybe the best is yet to be!

On a more positive note, the double peony-flowering tulips I planted in a large bed by the street are just starting to bloom. The only variety showing color yet is the yellow, which doesn't seem to stand up very well.

I actually like the red and white blend of tulips a lot. A classic color combo that always looks good.

OMG your garden look like the amazing one at the botanical garden.
Amazing !

Well, I am definately going to be a kilobulb planter this fall again. It is only April and so far I have already ordered from three companies, Colorblends, ADR and DutchGrown.com. For a total of 4,000 bulbs already. And I still have to order from Brent&Beckies, McClure & Zimmerman, Scheepers and the whopper of an order will be from Van Engelen.

WOW Rita! Your garden will be a wonderful sight next Spring - altho it looks great this year already!

I propped my damaged lead hare (http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1308335/) up in the garden Friday. I need someone who does restoration to bring him back into shape. Anyone know a good resource?

What a nice statue! And that bunny will not eat your flowers which is even better yet.

Annette, the flowers are lovely.

That poor bunny. Sorry he's damaged but glad he is lead instead of reproducing. Our bunnies are pretty small and cute until they dine on our plants. Our large garden hare is made of cement or composite and the chips cannot be readily repaired

Are your alliums starting to bud up for you? Our largest inground bulbs seem to be the earliest to bud. I started a thread, but there does not seem to be any interest. I'm fairly certain all the alliums have broken through and are growing (put in lots of new varieties last fall, all sizes and colors).

I read your thread. I have a couple of ideas, but first I would go to someone who makes tiffany type lamps. They are leaded, so the artist is familiar working with the materials and soldering. Also we have a very well known business locally known as the junkyard with a personality. It is called Stamford House Wrecking. If you have a business nearby that takes down old homes and resells property, they might be able to refer you to a restorer.

Marcia

I am moving clumps of in bloom daffodils today. This fall I will be doing a massive redo of the front yard daylily planterbox garden to make it into a spring bulb display at least as nice as the one on the other side of the front yard. Have it all planned out already. So these clumps need to move. Fortunatly I have some empty spots in a row of backyard daffs that I am filling in with my moved daffodil clumps.

Amend that number! I just ordered MORE blubs. 2,500 more to make my grand total 6,500 so far. To be fair a lot of todays order was crocus as I ordered 1,650 large flowering crocus. But still a lot of bulbs.

Rita, at least they are small bulbs. On those small bulbs, I'm usually weary before I'm done, then give the rest to my gardening buddy.

I am not going to be giving the crocus away. I want them. My yard used to have them around various places but what with building all the raised beds and changing things around my crocus more or less dissappeared. I want to put a lot of new ones in.

Rita, you will be Queen of the Bulb Crazies this year for sure.
Nice shots all, I am just catching up with all the posts since returning from 2 weeks in Belgium and the Netherlands. Sadly they had a very cold spring, so most bulbs not in bloom yet. But had a great trip. Plenty in our garden when we got home. Patti

Red Emperor. New for me.