Tiptoeing Through Tulips

Just lookie what we have here!  Our tulips came up!  Princess Maren has been keeping a close eye on things since oh, early March. (or whenever it was that our two feet of snow melted) She was worried.  It had been a mighty long time since we planted those tulips. It was an awfully long winter.

Then one day we saw this:

Great day in the morning!  They were all peeking their little heads out of  the dirt, just looking for their place in the sun.  Maren and I did the dance right then and there.  She did the "tulips are coming up dance" and I did the "I'm not a complete gardenening failure dance". 

We checked on them daily (sometimes more than daily) and a few weeks later we had this.

They look pretty happy in that good old Iowa black dirt, don't they?  We did another small dance. And now we have this:

Pretty maids all in a row.

Speaking of pretty maids, here's  my little color coordinator now.

So, all should be well in good in our little tulip growing world.  But it isn't.  See here in NW Iowa, we have this small event known as the Tulip Festival  the third week of May. Not only are our tulips beautifully blooming, so are every one else's in town. Locally, tulip growing and the timing of their full bloom is a serious business.  Much thought, preparation, and planning go into the activity.  Last year we were dead-on.  This year not so much.  I think we are well on our way to having a "Stem Festival".  

Oh well! There's always next year! We're just going to enjoy them while we can!