Tulips beat the odds
For almost 20 years Mary Lou and I have been planting tulips in our yards and at our offices before we sold our Hardee’s restaurants in 2018. Over that time, it is estimated that we have seen almost 50,000 brilliant blooms burst forth during the earliest days of Spring.
About the same time that Japanese Magnolias display their lavender, pink, and white blooms, and just before the cherry trees explode with their pink blossoms, the tulips show their colors. First in Donalsonville, Georgia and later in Auburn, Alabama the tulips signaled to our friends, neighbors and all that passed by that Spring is near.
Nature does not get it wrong very often. This year has been especially challenging for people planting tulips in the deep south. We typically plant tulip bulbs from Holland a few weeks after Thanksgiving. This year, unseasonably warm weather caused the bulbs to sprout earlier than usual. In addition, the three varieties of tulips we plant are each encouraged to bloom at different time, but this year they all seemed to break ground within days of each other.
As the green leaves of the tulips reached about two or three inches above the soil, the first big freeze of the year hit, extending over multiple days. I walked around the flower beds each day looking for signs of freeze damage. The plants were definitely stunted but seemed to be surviving.
A week later, a second hard freeze hit the area. The tulip leaves now had another inch or two of exposure to the elements and the buds were clearly exposed, though still somewhat protected within the folds of the green leaves.
I was resigned to the fact that the tulips had been severely damaged and that for the first time they would not signal the coming of Spring. The earliest blooms confirmed my fears. The first white buds opened deep within the folds of the greenery, making them invisible unless you were standing directly above the plants.
Then, in a way that only nature understands, the stems rose higher than the leaves. The white and red blooms opened at the same time but at a staggered height, followed very quickly by the pink blooms. The result was unexpected and spectacular.
After 20 years I was convinced that for the first time we would have a near failure of our Spring tulip display. Nature proved me wrong. It has been one of the best, with the blooms more closely timed, offering a simultaneous contrast of colors even as most other plants remain somewhat dormant.
For the second year in a row, I have seen our tulips adapt to unusual climate conditions. The efforts on my part to mitigate the damage proved to be unnecessary. Nature adapted on its own and resulted in an unexpectedly beautiful display.
If I were a betting man, I would have said my tulips were done after multiple days of the plants being exposed to harsh freezing temperatures. To the delight of anyone driving down Sanders Street, the tulip beat the odds.
o0o
Dan Ponder can be reached at [email protected]