Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Miracles Of Spring

Last fall, I suffered a yearning for 'home'.  Southeast Arkansas 'home'.  Grandma & Grandpa Fulton 'home'.  A 'home' that no longer exists outside of memories. 

I wanted to transplant some of those memories to our home here in Texas.  Since I couldn't make it back to Hamburg before November, I did the next best thing.  I went to Lowe's and bought daffodil bulbs. 

If you knew my Grandma Fulton at all, you knew that her yard in Spring was a sight to behold.  Daffodil's lined the front border, along with beautiful Vinca that grew throughout the trees and over the ground.

So last October I stuck bulbs in every open space I had.  Including the Chinese water buckets that sit on our back doorsteps.  For the past two years these pots have held my Gerbera daisies.  But, during last year's drought, I finally gave up on trying to keep them watered.  Before that, bronze mums called these pots home...but I moved them to their new home in 2010.

The daffodil's leaves began peeking out in February...but for whatever reason, they never made it into bloom.  So imagine my surprise when I got home on Monday evening from work and saw something red in that planter.

Y'all, I haven't had petunias in those buckets since Debbie and Casy were here with us.  That was 2008!!!  I was just looking back over some blog posts and in May of 2009 I had found some of these growing freely on the ground next to the deck.  Wow!  If I had been trying to keep them alive...they would certainly all be dead!

And that's not all.  While I was admiring the two resurrection petunia plants, I noticed a beautiful green leaf UNDER the deck.
It seems that someone (probably the infamous 'Not Me') had knocked the Christmas amaryllis off the ledge and it had fallen under the deck.  I found the empty pot months ago and threw it away.  Yet here was the bulb in a small amount of potting soil --healthy and newly sprouted! 

Maybe this is the secret to beautiful flowers in our yard.  It is not so much about how we plant, but what is hardy enough to survive me! 

Oh, and those daffodil's...well a few bulbs did come into bloom out in the front bed.
 While I was out taking this picture, I also noticed that the star jasmine is blooming again too.  Three years in a row!  Woo hoo!  There is hope for my daffodil's yet!
 Now, if I can just get my gardenia to bloom like Grandma Jenkins' always did!  Beautiful, sweet fragrance to meet me at the door on a summer afternoon.  Here's hoping!!!

(This picture has nothing to do with today's post...it is the flag hanging at the front gate and I just thought it looked rather majestic this morning!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do miss going to Grandma and Grandpa Fulton's. But like you I have my daffodils. They were in our yard when we bought the house and I never touch them. That way they live to see another year. ha ha. I kill every plant and flower I come in contact with. Green thumbs I do not have. Surprising since my mother is a master gardener by trade. Tried the gardenias too but they died years ago. I blamed it on the the dog at the time. He was relieving himmself on my plants, but I know if was probably something that I did or didn't do right. I did grow Jasmines though. Those little suckers must be tough because it is the only plant that I ever planted that didn't die at my hands. Good luck with your garden this year.

Rita

Brenda said...

Just beautiful! I do like the flag at the end.