Spring has sprung

So once again Holland has fields of tulips:

and Puyallup, Washington, has fields of daffodils:

(Photo by The Frugal Fraulein)

and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, has the always lovely Butchart Gardens:

and Atlanta, Georgia, has dogwoods and azaleas in profusion:

but what Canton, Georgia, has outshines them all!

Canton, Georgia, has . . . (drum roll, please!) . . .

Rhymeswithplague Gardens:

I know. It’s pitiful, isn’t it?

But there’s a story behind this splendor, or lack thereof. About seven years ago, a neighbor gave us a handful of tulip bulbs in October.
I made a little flower bed and planted them. The following spring a nice little row of tulips gave us their all. They bloomed their guts out.

And what thanks did they get? Benign neglect is too good a term for what happened next. I let things go completely. I forgot about the tulips. Eventually grass invaded the flower bed and took over.

We never saw another tulip. Each year a few leaves would pop up through the grass to remind us of what could be if we only paid some attention and helped things along, but not one single flower ever appeared again.

Until now. After six long years, these two guys showed up. I consider them a tribute to the dogged determination of things horticultural.
I have no intention of cutting them and putting them indoors in a vase, though. I want them to live their entire lives planted in terra firma.

I have named my new friends Pinky and Lee.

Speaking of which, here (if you can stand it) is a whole episode of The Pinky Lee Show (28:09) from 1954.