The Poppy in the Tulip Square

the attack on the trade center in 2001 and the attendant thoughts of world war and its scarcities bounced me into a couple of challenges i might not otherwise have considered

sorta like adopting a war cry and a battle plan to cope with unexpected expectations i learned how to can foods / canned every tomato in the garden / every plum on the tree / once that was done it was fall and the ocasion for another challenge / i decided to plant 500 flower bulbs

the challenge here was finding enough diggable areas to plant that many bulbs

there was a Blue collection and an assortment of daffodils/jonquils etc of all sizes and petal types / there were also bulbs that were destined to acclimate and these also had the advantage of being planted two or three to a hole

i bought some groovy bright red gardening tools to make it all fun and easy

there were also 50 tulips 50

all fancy hybrids and what not / these were not guaranteed to bloom more than the first year

in the south side lawn of my house was a plain dirt square about 4 feet by 4 feet / the cement mixer on a square of plywood had occupied this spot for several years / once moved it was free of grass

remembering a neighbor in the Vermont village who had a small square flower garden in the middle of her otherwise lush grassy lawn i decided to prep the square and plant the 50 tulips 50 there.

around the outer edge i planted "blues" / grape hyacinths and anemones

all the tulips came up and so did the blue border / i was thrilled

gradually the tulips gave up the ghost / several orange ones and a pair of whites and a pretty pink streaked white one all have survived since then and bloom anew / the border continues to come up and bloom too

an errant poppy seed germinated and began to grow

i do love poppies / ever since years in Europe where i was dazzled by the fields of poppies (now known as Legionaire poppies) tinting the hillsides and fields with red

i read if poppies are cut before they open they make a nice cut flower for bouquets

we got up early one morning / at dawn and drove out of Rome to the countryside and found a likely field for picking unopened poppies

we came away with armfulls of them / there were literally thousands of flowers / i followed the old Girl Scout rule about only picking a flower once you have seen .............. so many of them

we also came away with our sweaters stuck all over with golden grass debris

the cut poppies did, indeed, last a week or more in big jars of water on the dining room table

now as for that Poppy in the Tulip Square she is flourishing beyond all expectations / she has not bloomed much so far but this year she is truly in her prime

she survives to thrive (smile)

i just counted more than a dozen buds / maybe more / i lost count

i will keep score as each one blooms

accompanying her are a small flock of California poppies / golden yellow and creamy white / that i started indoors

eager anticipation with camera at the ready

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ps / the neighbor lady with the flower square in her lawn in Vermont told me that it was where her children's play house had been