We had a few flowers pop up recently around the garden here at the
Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes homestead.
The first tulip of the year has opened. I share it with you.
In a very strange development, we've found almost opened tulip blossoms on the ground, two to three feet away from the plants the last two mornings. They're cut about 4-6 inches from the ground with a diagonal cut but there's no other damage to the stem or the plant. I'm assuming it's rabbits or squirrels. It's not all lost since Alycia takes the cut flowers and puts them in a vase and we have lovely tulips indoors for a few days.
Even though I've seen a bunny near our yard the past few days, in general the rabbits and squirrels stay out of the fenced in yard (where the tulips are located) since we have three dogs who would very much enjoy chasing them, playing with them, and likely eating them. Since we've lived here, there have been no critters that venture into the yard except for the occasional bold daytime squirrel. Perhaps it's time to have the dogs posted outside on nighttime sentinel duty to protect our flowers from marauding flower chomping wild beasties.
In the front yard we have Siberian Irises blooming. These are very small (3-4 inches) plants with delicate blue flowers and are usually the first to bloom in Spring. In fact these have been blooming for a week or so now and are almost done for the season.
Alycia planted these in a semi-circle around the trunk of a large tree in the front yard. These little flowers are supposed to naturalize and (possibly) start spreading a bit, and they look perfect nestled among the tree trunk and large roots. They're very cool little flowers and the sign for me that Spring is here.
4 comments:
Alysia did a fine job planting under the tree. They really do like a location like that as long as they get their Spring moisture.
The only problem is the flowers are so small that my camera doesn't do a good job of capturing them. I need something closer to your set up so I can get better close up pictures.
Love any shade of blue in the garden, they are really pretty.
In regards to the tulip beheading incident; back in the day when I was still living on the farm my mother was so excited when her tulips were in bud.
We went out to milk cows and were stunned when coming back from chores all of the flowers had been beheaded. As we stood there discussing the carnage in tones of woe the culprit revealed himself. Our late, great German Shepherd, Sparky, who was standing there with us admitted his guilt by hanging his head in doggy shame.
I have never seen a dog act so guilty and we'd never have given it a thought he had anything to do with it until he acted so sheepish. Apparently the tulips waving in the breeze were just too much temptation for him. He was a quite the character. And that was the last time he 'picked' tulips for us, in fact, when my mother would gather flowers afterward from the garden, he would follow her around looking worried.
Karen. I'm laughing at the tulip story of your Mom and Sparky - "hanging his head in doggy shame" made me laugh out loud.
I'll have to investigate the pups as possible suspects, especially since it wouldn't be the first time they've engaged in naughty puppy shenanigans. The tulip beheadings happened overnight though, so I'm hoping that unless one of the pups snuck out of the house we can absolve them of the crime.
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