The experts say to dig up your tulips after they've bloomed and toss them in the compost. Then buy and plant new tulip bulbs in the fall. That's what groundskeepers do, I know.
Oh, I understand. For some reason I don't comprehend, people like neat beds of tulips, all the same color and perfectly lined up. But what a waste to throw away the bulbs each year!
To prove my point, here's a tulip that was here when we came to Paradise 36 years ago. Every year it has come up and bloomed with no help whatsoever. At first it was just one solitary bloom. Now it has multiplied. It grows under a black walnut tree where few other plants could thrive. I never feed it. Dennis mows it down when the leaves begin to wither.
Let them grow, I say. And good luck to them. I wish I could rescue their brothers and sisters from compost heaps and scatter them all over Paradise.
Oh, I understand. For some reason I don't comprehend, people like neat beds of tulips, all the same color and perfectly lined up. But what a waste to throw away the bulbs each year!
To prove my point, here's a tulip that was here when we came to Paradise 36 years ago. Every year it has come up and bloomed with no help whatsoever. At first it was just one solitary bloom. Now it has multiplied. It grows under a black walnut tree where few other plants could thrive. I never feed it. Dennis mows it down when the leaves begin to wither.
Let them grow, I say. And good luck to them. I wish I could rescue their brothers and sisters from compost heaps and scatter them all over Paradise.
1 comment:
Perhaps you have a tulip elf?
Love the color! My, how green everything looks!
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