Pretty in Pink

My street planter was in it's spring glory this past weekend as the heat brought all the tulips to full bloom. My aunt Cynthia and son Leo and I planted "angelique", "gander's rhapsody", and "blushing lady" last fall and I love the way the creams, pinks, and yellows looked together.

Sadly, the heat wave seems to have taken the tulips down quite quickly, and I've seen daffies and tulips fading fast all over the neighborhood. I love these blocks of tulips nestled under the flowering magnolias at the Bleecker St. NYU apartment complex.

Another brilliant Magnolia, and lovely spring day in Washington Square Park.

Daffodil time

I am aching to see the many patches of daffodils I've planted at my NH house. They are one of my top favorite flowers, and I love to pick different kinds. One year my niece Rachel helped me plant 50 pink ones, but I think I like the poeticus sort, like 'Actaea' ( named after one of King Solomon's concubines) and the double flowering, such as 'Cheerfulness,' (heirloom, 1923) best of all. Its scent is heaven. And don't miss the double, tousle-headed ones like 'Rip Van Winkle,' all yellow, double, almost like a dandelion.

A few weeks ago I bought 3 bunches of supermarket daffodils to take to friends. They were the standard trumpet yellow. At my friends', I asked them to guess where the daffs had grown. No one guessed; they were from England.

I have bought Irish daffs in supermarkets; it's amazing to think it's cost-effective.

My mother grew so many daffodils I used to joke that they could be seen from a jet flying from Boston to Paris. She encouraged picking, and so do I.

Daffy Down Dilly

Daffy down dilly

has come to town

In a yellow petticoat

And a green gown.

I have to admit I've succumb a bit too much to gloom about it being gray or cold more often that not. When I moved back east from San Francisco, I was shocked to find the spring I was expecting did not come until May (rather than in March). But, if you wait until May to be happy about spring, you'll find the flowering trees, profusion of bulbs, and forsythia have passed you by and the heat of summer coming in fast. So, here is the glory of mid-spring...