Not quite so frozen up this weekend

With all the rather inclement weather we have been having this year , I was begining to wonder if I would ever be able to buy in any daffodil and tulip ready grown potted up bulbs to populate the brand new raised beds in the front garden .
As they have been frozen solid down to 200 mm ( 8 inches ) or more for most of the last three weeks.
I'd have been quite happy to buy bare bulbs later on in the year and plant them then as they tend to be much cheaper and it's OK planting them whilst it's warm .

However life does not take into account the charms & love of a woman . This afternon , whilst I've been completing a massive planting /seed sowing schedule for both the front & rear gardens ( because of having to start it all from scratch ) , my wife took our Munchkin out shopping to give me the peace & quiet I craved..

On their return three hours later I get the , " Darling come and see what I've got for you ,..... close your eyes and let me lead you out to the car " routine.
Being aware that one time I was taken out to a bag of horse manure & as it was just above freezing point I played coy , pleaded insanity & tried to stay indoors to finish the schedules.
But as most married men will know , a woman can be very insistant when backed up by a precocious 10 yr old mini version of themselves

Lead like a condemed man , with eyes closed , I went to my fate in the back of the car. On opening my eyes I was presented with 8 x 4 pot packs of 4 growing bulbs in each pot and 4 x 4 pot packs of half dead primrose plant .

Arrrragh ...... my world collapsed inside my head .. I just smiled and said , " Thank you Sweethearts " & gave them a hug .

Now an hour and a half later , frozen to the bone marrow, they are all nested down in the front beds for the coming spring show .
I havn't a clue as to the height of the tulips and daffodils nor the shape of the flowers etc. , that was not on the packs
The primroses will be renamed " The Survivors " if they make it back from their imminent demise because of not being watered for at least a week whilst in the shop .

All over Europe this ancient ritual is being enacted .. don't ever let it die it's called love .

, but heartwarming too.

plantoid
Sounds like the horse manure might have been a better "surprise"
You really are quite a writer.

One question though, why not plant the tulips in the fall?
I am thinking perhaps I might have really screwed up last fall, in planting a few hundred tulips. (I have lived for 15 years in zone 8 down on the oregon coast)
Do tulip bulbs not overwinter?.... in ..... say .... 5a zoning?

You really sound like you have had a much colder winter than I

That's what I was intending ..planting daff's and tulips in the autumn.
But as the beds were not built & filled with MM until a few weeks ago I was leaning towards a quick fix with bulbs of a known quality and size .
Using only just enough to give a bit of a vanity show for the nosey neighbours and our friends .
Come Fall this year I hope to buy a couple of hundred of assorted daff's and tulip bulbs for a stunning show next year.

re overwintering bulbs in your area ... in a freezer .
best see if anyone else in the same zone as you has any info for you . This side of the pond will most likely be totaly different , however I seem to recall that one year we had eight weeks of around minus 11 C Jan & Feb ( what that is in F , I don't readily know ) but we did have a shed load of dwarf & mid height tulips poke their heads up in spring.

Thinking about it , tulips come from Holland / Netherlands ,they also get stonking cold winters down to minus 6 F and still grow tulips outside for bulb sales . It is also the same in Spalding here in the UK , where I've never heard of there not being enough tulip heads for the annual Spalding flower festival in May ( look it up on line ) .
I've known times when it where it was too warm and they had probs trying to keep the petals on the heads for the festival .

I am fully expecting a very showy entrance to my hard this spring, perhaps we can "compare"
I dug up my mothers garden last spring, before anything had started to grow, she has dementia and so really could not tell me what anything was.
So I planted all the bulbs and created a "surprise" garden
Then added about a hundred tulips and other bulbs. Funny I had forgotten about all of that until I saw your post.
Something ELSE to be excited about spring for. This is my first year on this property and i am SOOO excited to see what survived the winter.

I also did the other bulb things like crocuses etc etc.

I thought having flowers would help attract the birds and the bees etc

I have still got over 1,000 bubs corms and tubers ( specifically purchased by me three weeks ago ) for planting over the months of late Feb , March & April . ..no crocus yet though .
I also have about 16 pounds of assorted bulbs corms and tubers taken for the rear beds ( sleeping off the depth of winter in vermiculite ) that had been used as a holding farm last year because the landscapers were so far behind getting their work done .

The front gardens should have been completed in August last year & the rear ones in April last year ... this would have also have included in filling all all the beds with earth & vermiculite as a growing medium .
It was not till I joined this site In November last year that I found about MM being an enlightened way of doing my gardening .
The back beds are part earth filled and will get dug out this next month and be filled with a leafmould based MM like the front garden beds are.

So the delay in getting things built & finished etc.has been a blessing in disguise in a strange sort of way .

Stay warm Plantoid, your region is in sorta a mess right now. Been watching the news.

Kay

Because they were gifted to you with so much love, the tulips and "The Survivors" will turn out to be he most beautiful flowers in your garden!