The Bulb Planting Time, She Comes

My dear friend and former Penn State office-mate, Ellen Bliss, died last November. It all happened so quickly. She had cancer once, beat it, and then it came back and took her life. I have written about her on these pages (see the cheesesteak, the cake, and the pink orchids), but I am not done, no not by far.

After Ellen's passing, I received some of her ashes in the mail, and they have been traveling with me everywhere. It has been the Summer of Ellen's Ashes. Some places she merely visited; other places, she stayed. Sometime I'll tell you more about Ellen's adventures. But on this day is the tale of the bulb garden I planted for Ellen, for her birthday, which is the 11th of October.

I decided in the springtime that I would plant a bulb garden in her honor. Now, I've had mixed results in the planting area, as you have heard, but I remain ever hopeful. So I ordered a bunch of neat stuff from Breck's. You know, the very BEST bulbs come from Breck's. They are fat and saucy and robust! These bulbs could beat up anybody else's bulbs with one hand tied behind their backs!

So the bulbs arrived on the day before this, via Fed Ex. "Here come your bulbs," my husband said, as I rushed out to nab them from the Fed Ex lady. And T. Tiger and I opened the box and found the bulbs to be big, healthy, and luscious. We looked up their colors and heights and depths and distances, etc. And on this day, we dug and planted.

Now, first, let me say this. Digging ANYthing with a shovel totally sucks. And I do not recommend it. It can and will make you grumpy. (Ask T. Tiger!) But there is apparently lots that needs to go UNDER the dirt instead of merely on TOP of it. So it is with bulbs. They want you to dig six inches, at least. Six inches never seemed so deep!

I had also resolved that this time, I was putting some mesh over the bulbs so the critters who might want to dig them up and dine on them will have harder going at it. So I asked my husband if he had any more of that wire mesh that he put under the shed to keep the groundhogs out.

Nope, but he DID have some of that sort of tough plastic mesh that he used to cover the roof gutters. BINGO! It was just enough! Weirdly: EXACTLY enough. And so I dug my holes, I put in my bulbs, I added some better dirt from under the deck, and I topped the bulbs with a layer of mesh. I cut little holes around the mesh above each bulb so that each plant could emerge in springtime, as they should.

I dug two holes in the dirt, one at the front of Gremlin's Meadow, not far from Dexter's grave, and one in Barb's butterfly garden. Barb was always someone who shared everything she had quite easily and I know she won't mind at all. And Ellen had met my sister and knew she was a good person and one of my lifetime heroes, a soup kitchen for the whole world's soul, so I'm sure they'll get along just fine!

The things I planted so far include: giant hyacinth, Pittsburg (no H) tulip, rainbow parrot tulip, red dynasty tulip, and zamin allium. I had already planted the 12-dollar (gulp) sea power iris a few weeks ago when it arrived. Items that remain to plant include riot daffodil and sinopel daffodil, plus a handful of giant hyacinths. (For a treat, look them all up on the Breck's website!)

Now, Ellen was a fan of pink, and I realized when planting that while there are some pink shades scattered in (with the giant hyacinth and also on the rainbow parrot tulips), I may need to order and plant more PINK stuff to please her! That is now on my list of things to do.

I also have huge purple alliums that I planted myself in my own yard, but they walked all the way over into the woods. Isn't it funny how plants can do that? I had already planned to move them, and so I had marked them in springtime by putting small plastic frog markers by them. On this day, I dug those up and moved them, too. (Have you ever seen allium bulbs? They're small and cute!)

Into the front (Barb's) butterfly garden went some giant hyacinths, red dynasty tulips, and Pittsburg tulips. I can't wait to see what red and purple look like together, for they are the colors of JOY. Oh, when they march me off to Heaven, dress me in purple and red, for there will be a party when I get there!!!! But I digress.  ;-)

Into the strip at the front of the meadow went more red dynasty tulips, Pittsburg tulips, and rainbow parrot tulips. At the front of Dexter's grave went the zamin allium (they will be blue, and might nicely match the sea power iris that I just planted there).

I had estimated the whole planting effort might take an hour and a half, but it went well over two and a half hours. By the time we were done, T. Tiger and I were exhausted. We saved some daffodils and hyacinths for yet one more planting spot, which I will get to soon.

And of course, I put some of the last of Ellen's ashes (I'm almost out now but I have one more trip in mind for her before we're done) into each of the bulb plantings. My Boot, I hope you will love these. I miss you. Happy birthday!

My soundtrack song for this posting which is all about planting is this one: Jakob Dylan, with Will It Grow?