Nothing says spring like the first show of flowers! After almost a year of nothing new to report from the garden, spring was a welcome change.
Last autumn I decided to try my hand at some flowers. Personaly, I find it difficult to keep a spot vacant for most of the year for annuals. But a garden needs flowers. So we decided to start with the easiest way to grow them - bulbs. Bulbs are convenient, they sprout up every spring and then die back, only to multiply by next year! Bulbs have to be planted in autumn for them to flower in spring.
Flowers from the Narcissus family are my favourite, having seen them blooming in the Himalayan hill stations. They have a beautiful smell and look very cheery.
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| Narcisuss Jonquil |
We also tried our hand at growing tulips. The bulbs were a mixed bag of colours - red, white and yellow.
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| Tulips |
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| White tulip |
And finally, we picked up Hyacinth, which was unknown to us. It turned out to be very beautiful! The three bulbs were different colours. The flowers grew in a cluster on the main stem and smelt heavenly.
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| Purple Hyacinth |
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| Blue Hyacinth |
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| White Hyacinth |
The biggest joy of all were the 10 or so oranges from our tree! They say that you never know when an orange is ready to be plucked until you have plucked it. Which was true because the first one we plucked in August was still too sour!
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| Oranges ready for picking |
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| Orange harvest |
