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And here we have the last few examples of Darwins to wind up our mini-series of tulip inner bits as captured last April, when the tulips were at their spring best ... And given the current terrain out there (as of today), these magnificent specimens were indeed in their prime blooming mode ....
Though this year's tulips are trying valiantly to put on a show this year (see the bottom photo taken today), it's clearly not going to be anywhere near as show stopping as we achieved last year. So we'll have to content ourselves with some prime specimens from last April (2006) ... From the top we have an example of a simple (if that adjective could justifiably be applied to this flower!) basic yellow Darwin ... closely followed by one of the constantly dwindling Parrot Feather varieties that was planted among those first bulbs mentioned in a previous post ... and finally --just for Olivia, of course-- a dirty pink Darwin, one of a mix that I planted along the line of the sidewalk leading to the street.

Of course I'm especially partial to the yellows ... and I may be tempted to get a few more of the Parrot Feathers to replenish the stock, because though they are a fancy variety, the textures they exhibit are just far too fascinating to dismiss casually (as I tend to do with such cultivars). I particularly relish the "pinking shears" effect on the petals, not to mention the mysterious inner bits this particular tulip offers up ... just primed for an enterprising bee to explore and pollinate....

And to my eye, the brilliant yellow (above) edged in inky black just screams bumblebee mimicry ... an inviting landing and collection pad just waiting to be used on a warm, sunny spring day, the likes of which we hope have finally arrived this year to banish the last of the winter woes we've had recently in the garden.

And, as sad testimony to the damage caused by our recent freezes, as well as the tenaciousness of these Darwins, I've included a shot of one of the masses of reds and yellows we have out in the main boulder bed. As you can see, they're doing their best to give us some blooms, but nothing close to what they've achieved in the past couple of years ... In any case, we plan on feeding them before they disappear for the season, in the hopes of better performance next year, weather permitting ....