Tulips

I adore tulips

They are one of my favorite flowers

And when they're first offered for sale at the grocery store,

I bring home at least one bunch every week

I love them on the dining room or breakfast room table

And if I can find the frilly ones, so much the better!

Mostly they're about $5 for a bunch of 6

(or sometimes less if we go to Trader's Joe's in the city)

And it's well worth the $5 to me

For they bring a smile to my face

I don't know if it's the fact that the prairie is a bit further south and thus a little warmer

than where I grew up in Kansas City, but here, tulips are

"annuals"

You plant them in the fall, get a good bloom the following spring

And you're lucky if the year after that you get a bloom at all

So I rarely plant them

In the fall of 2015, I did succumb to these beauties

And they gave a good show in 2016

But in 2017, I have but one lone tulip and actually not much foliage!

In 2018, I won't even have that one bloom!

Sometimes I find a pretty tulip and will plant the bulbs, just for that one year of bloom

Just for the chance to have a pretty bouquet in the old blue pitcher!

Growing up, mother never planted tulips.

And we had tulips every year!

Red ones or white ones as I recall.

Were they "heirloom" bulbs?

Was it the fact that Kansas City is a bit colder than here?

Whatever reason, I was a bit dismayed that tulips were an "annual".

And look at the garden in 2017

These lovely red tulips are blooming

As they did in 2015

And in 2014!

I know I planted these tulips

What kind they are, I'm at a loss to say

I would assume that I got them at Costco

(for I get a lot of my bulbs there)

but I may have ordered them

But they're "comeback" tulips!

For this is at least the fourth year they've bloomed

And bloomed well!

(I couldn't find any pictures of the garden at tulip time in earlier years, so I'm not sure

when I planted them)

I may try to look at some heirloom varieties of tulips to plant this fall

With the hopes that they won't be just a "one year show"

like most.

I must admit that these red tulips bring a smile to my face

As I take my afternoon tea in the breakfast room

And see their red blooms dancing in the breeze.