and Puyallup, Washington, has fields of daffodils:
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.
i am from that erz and do not rememember the guy you are talking about<<.did he come before or after howdey dowdey???????????????
ReplyDeleteHello, Putz (and thank you for your comment)! According to Wikipedia, Howdy Doody was on the air from 1947 to 1960 on NBC, and Pinky Lee was on the air from 1950 to about 1955 (off and on), also on NBC, and Howdy's broadcast followed Pinky's every weekday afternoon. Besides being just a little younger than I am by what, 3 years?, you were also in Mountain Time Zone and I was in Central (so your network programs were an hour earlier than mine). Pinky may have been on the air before you got home from school. Do you remember watching Howdy Dood immediately after school? If so, I rest my case.
ReplyDeleteDood = Doody
ReplyDeletei think you miss spelled dude>>>>y, you spelled it doody
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of Pinky Lee because I'm British (said Daphne in a BBC accent). However, I think you are being too hard on yourself about the tulips. It is not YOUR fault, it is THEIR fault. Your only duty was to plant them. Tulips should just get on with it, after that, flowering year after year with no fuss. Perhaps you should go and shout at your neighbour about his inferior tulip bulbs. Pah!
ReplyDeleteI love Pinky and Lee (Pinky Lee not so much.) I've not had much (read: any) success with tulips left in the ground. I think it just does not get cold enough here. I understand that tulip bulbs enjoy a good chill.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I don't know how much attention I should pay to a person who goes around England saying "What royal wedding?"....but I will take your thoughts under advisement.
ReplyDeletePat, this past winter was the coldest one around here in decades. Centuries, even. Maybe that is th chief reason for the reappearance of the tulips.
The Willamette Valley has large fields of tulips too. Do you ever get down to Callaway Gardens, I think it's called, down near Warm Springs? Another place you absolutely must visit if you haven't been--and surely you have--is Brookgreen Gardens just below Myrtle Beach.
ReplyDelete