My tulips are up. I’m especially happy with these because they are the ones which I’ve dug up and chilled each year for the last 3 years. I know this because all the new bulbs are still small leaves, whereas these red ones are all blooming. I think this is because my fridge has glass doors, so they probably had more light than they should have had during the chilling process.
In any case they were already sprouting by the time I planted them in pots under the trees. They are looking beautiful there and I hesitated to cut them, but I couldn’t pass up the flowers from the pruned honeysuckle.
The Honeysuckle is not the Japanese one which I love. That one is too rampant to introduce near bush. Even this one which is supposed to be a shrub is now frowned upon and had to be pruned hard to keep it from growing everywhere except where where I wanted it. It smells nice, but not as much as the Japanese one.
Last year I cut flowers from the Flannel Flower, Phylica pubescens. They were lovely and lasted for ages in the vase. But this year the bush has been covered with Bumble Bees since it started flowering, except for one morning when it was white with frost. It looks to me as though the bees are harvesting the pollen. I thought that only the queens survived through winter, but if these are all queens there are a lot of them. This is by far their favourite food right now – even the shrubby wall flowers (Erysimum) which they love are not getting attention just yet.
A winter flowering lavender, Lavender Sidonie is also beautiful and attracted one or two Bumbles. They are so heavy they weigh down the slim stems.
The Honeybees are ignoring these flowers and heading out across the neighbouring property. I think they have found a good big patch of flowering gorse somewhere.
Over at Rambling in the Garden the vases are lush with Summer flowers. Why not add your own?
Absent Gardener 
Your tulips are early. Well done for chilling them so you can have some early ones. They are a beautiful colour.
Thanks Christina. The single reds are the the first ones I think of when I think of Tulips. However Inspired by your vases last year I have planted lots of new ones this year. I can’t wait to see them.
That is true love to chill tulips! I like the bouquet but I am most impressed with your dedication.
Tulips are one of those plants I remember from childhood, in fact I remember screaming for my mother when I saw the first one poking up through snow and mud one year.(and being told off when she came running thinking I was injured 🙂 )
It is nice to be reminded of the cooler tulip season on a hot July day. And they are lovely tulips too. But then the first ones are always special aren’t they! Happy Spring Cath!
Thanks Cathy, I do enjoy the cooler weather. I took lots of pictures of frost last week which I will post soon. I’m not so crazy about mud and we are definitely entering the muddy season – but that’s what happens when you get rain, and you have to be grateful for rain. 🙂
Lovely effect and what a treat to see tulips again!
I admire the time you take to keep the tulips going. They are lovely! Your flannel flowers, so fuzzy, seem quite popular. 🙂
Thanks Eliza, the flannel flowers are SO popular. It’s hard to show but there are probably 20 or more bumbles at a time on the plant, at a time of year when there aren’t many around. It’s quiet, not a noisy party but more like the old clubs that you see in movies, where gentlemen would sit by the fire and read books or have drinks, except these should all be gentlewomen 🙂
Love the analogy!
Your ‘flannel flower’ is so intriguing – don’t think I have come across that before. Thank you for allowing some of your tulips to make it to a vase for us to admire, and the shrubby honeysuckle is perfect with it. I have both L fragrantissima and L purpusii and their fragrance in a UK winter are delightful – but I know what you mean about keeping them in check
How amazing to see tulips now. I am not sure what my family would say if they found bulbs in the fridge. Second thoughts I know what they would say and it wouldn’t be complimentary!
Haha, the whole bottom of the fridge was full of them. C is pretty patient – he’s probably worried that I’ll make him go live in Canada if I don’t get my tulips. 🙂 It was the several car trips where I carted them down in the chilly bin (esky) and then didn’t plant them due to weather or time and carted them back again that started to elicit dissent. I could have left them in the cold cabin, but I thought mice might eat them.
Tulips! I’ve never been very successful growing them here in coastal southern California – even with a thorough chilling in the fridge, our Santa Ana winds (sometimes called “devil winds”) inevitably knock out the majority of the blooms in bud. I was delighted to see Phylica pubescens in your garden – it’s my latest plant crush. The one I planted in a large pot here is doing well but sadly the 2 plants I put in my back border just before our nasty June heatwave hit appear to be lost causes.
I’m glad you are loving the Phylica too – I bought mine by mail order, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen another one. It’s grown from a tiny little plume to shrubby plant about a meter all around and survived a drought in its first summer, and then a very wet summer this year. I don’t know why there aren’t more of them around as it looks lovely all year, and even more since it provides bee food in winter.