Our tulips are blooming! Actually, at this point they're nearly finished... The very first ones I pulled (for cut flowers you actually pull the whole bulb so you get the best stem length, since they often don't grow well as perennials anyway) I was a little disappointed in at first, since they were so muted and were supposed to be white with pink streaks. Well, they brightened up a ton over the next few days and the smell was incredible! Definitely growing Foxtrot tulips again (and a bunch of other varieties... I think Andrew's on board now?). The bouquets got apple blossom and spirea accents, and the lilacs are just starting to bloom so I'm going to add a bunch of those to bouquets for this weekend!
The dandelions are also in full bloom, and we're almost out of homemade jam so... I sent the kids outside to pick some for dandelion jelly! It ends up tasting like lemon, basically, but it keeps the kids occupied for a while, separating the green part of the bud from the petals. I've made it into tea now, and next I need to add sugar, pectin, and lemon juice and make it into actual jelly. Hopefully that will tide us over until strawberry season in a month or so? These kids eat jam like it's their job!! Our strawberry plants are looking really good, tons of flowers, so hopefully we can harvest a decent amount and use them to make jam. I've only managed one small batch from past years' harvests, but we planted 75 plants at the beginning of last spring and they're looking really good this year!
Beautiful tulips and bouquets! The silly squirrels ate all of my tulips just as they were popping out of the ground. From now on, it's daffodils for me, since they don't like the taste.
ReplyDeleteDandelion jam? I have never heard of that. And it taste like lemon? Interesting. It looks a little tedious, but I bet it keeps the little ones busy!
It is definitely tedious!! Definitely nice for keeping little hands busy :)
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