#spring bulbs

Plant of the Day

Tuesday 19 May 2026

A Darwin hybrid tulip, probably Tulipa 'Red Impression’ was creating a striking display in this border. Each flower has a golden halo surrounding a near-black blotch. This is a reliable tulip cultivar which will return the next year providing it has fertile, well-drained soil with protection from excessive wet and shelter from strong winds.

On Sundays, as many of Algy's friends may recall, Algy likes to relax with one of his books of poetry… if conditions permit.

And on this particular Sunday in late February, it looked as though conditions might permit for just a brief period in the morning, as the day was being washed clean in preparation for the coming spring by plenty of fast-moving showers, some of them surprisingly heavy.

But at times there was a lull, so when Algy felt reasonably confident that the rain would pause for a wee while, he picked up a book of verse and flew over to the garden's earliest patch of daffodils. Of course he knew that he could have found a drier perch elsewhere, but he particularly wanted to be beside those first golden trumpets, and decided to put up with the resulting dampness in his tail feathers.

Opening his book, with the garden birds twittering and singing in the bushes behind him, Algy happened upon an apposite poem, and as he read it out loud for the benefit of his feathered friends, he thought what a pity it was that despite the fact that it had been written over two centuries ago, so many human beings had not yet caught up with the wisdom of the nightingale and the glow-worm 🕊️

A Nightingale that all day long Had cheer'd the village with his song, Nor yet at eve his note suspended, Nor yet when even tide was ended, Began to feel as well he might The keen demands of appetite; When looking eagerly around, He spied far off upon the ground, A something shining in the dark, And knew the glow-worm by his spark, So stooping down from hawthorn top, He thought to put him in his crop; The worm aware of his intent, Harangu'd him thus right eloquent. Did you admire my lamp, quoth he, As much as I your minstrelsy, You would abhor to do me wrong, As much as I to spoil your song, For 'twas the self-same power divine, Taught you to sing, and me to shine, That you with music, I with light, Might beautify and cheer the night. The songster heard his short oration, And warbling out his approbation, Releas'd him as my story tells, And found a supper somewhere else. Hence jarring sectaries may learn, Their real int'rest to discern: That brother should not war with brother, And worry and devour each other, But sing and shine by sweet consent, 'Till life's poor transient night is spent, Respecting in each other's case The gifts of nature and of grace. Those christians best deserve the name Who studiously make peace their aim; Peace, both the duty and the prize Of him that creeps and him that flies.

Spring Riot

The reason for flowers is reproduction. Three major parts of a flower function to achieve this purpose. First, the gynoecium sits at the center. This is the ovule-producing portion. It’s where seeds are born. Its stigmas accept pollen produced by the second major flower part, the androecium. This part is made up of a whorl of stamens that generally surround the gynoecium, except when the…