Tulips time and more

This week was so cold that I haven't been able to work in the garden.  We were surprised to see the tulips come into bloom as the week progressed.  It was so cold every day! What were they thinking? We are about two weeks ahead of last year if we use the tulips as a time mark.  

To my surprised most tulips appear as last year.  The daffodils being in their year two bloomed way earlier than the tulips and are not as sharp looking as a week ago.
This morning we woke up to 28F. Frost and sad looking tulips.  But the day turned around with temperatures in the low fifties and by afternoon the tulip border was glorious!

Tulips at 8:00am and 28F

Tulips at 1:00pm and 52F

I have the same border of tulips as last year.   I decided to not take out the tulip bulbs last summer and see what happens considering that this border is in a raised bed with good drainage.  Tulips do not like wet summers in Ohio. I didn't think that the summer was terribly wet but wanted to see what happens. I am happy with the experiment!

The tulips border: red is Darwin "Apeldoorn", pink/orange is Darwin "Apricot Impression" and the yellow/orange Darwin "Daydream"

Other flowers are in bloom right now:

Brunnera

Yellow Trout Lily or Dog tooth violets (Erythronium americanum) - wild flower

Epimedium

Narcissus poeticus

Thalia daffodil

Tulips time

As I mentioned yesterday, everything is happening so fast in the garden.  Today is going to be a hot day so the tulips will be forced to finish, reason why yesterday was probably the peak for these beauties.  I didn't plant a lot of them last fall but I had to since now I consider them a must presence for my mid Spring garden.

The "Roses Bed" in spring

Winter anti-depression treatment #3

Oreo the lovely female cat and Darwin Tulip "Apeldoorn" - April 2012