Not quite finished

My spring-flowering bulb plantings would have to be considered a success by almost any measure. I planted them so late last fall -- after all of the bulbs were on clearance -- that I was concerned that they wouldn't have enough time to establish. The mild winter gave them a break though, and it seems like all of the bulbs bloomed.

Crocus, daffodils, grape hyacinths, and tulips -- I saw them all and some of them lasted quite a long time. My neighbors all complained that their daffodils bloomed for just a few days and were gone, but that was probably due to the spell of 90ºF (32ºC) days we had. My blooms were slower to emerge and therefore missed the hottest days, and lasted for a couple of weeks it seemed. I thought the show was over now, but I was wrong.

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I completely forgot that in addition to the above-mentioned bulbs I planted a fifth: Alliums!

My strategy with the daffodils -- which I wasn't a big fan of before this spring -- was to mix them throughout the plantings. Knowing that deer won't eat daffs I thought this could be a good way to keep them from munching the tulips. It seemed to work, as I only saw one or two tulip stems snipped, and that may have been a rabbit.

I also knew that nothing would eat Alliums (ornamental onions), so I included some of those as a late-spring insurance policy. If nothing else produced blooms, I was pretty sure the Alliums would.

And then I completely forgot about them.

But here they are!  Only a single bloom has fully opened so far, but a few more are coming soon.

A very nice surprise!

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