Dear Gardening Friends,

Gosh no, those aren’t my tulips in the picture, but I sure think they are pretty and I want some for my own garden. I saw these tulips and many others on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art this week.  They planted hundreds of thousands of bulbs last fall and a few mix-ins this spring for a big show they call Spring Blooms.

It really is a big show.

I posted on Facebook that if you live within 100 miles of the IMA, drop what you are doing and head out there to see the tulips before they are gone. I mean it.

Though they’ve planted a wide variety of tulips to extend the blooms for as long as they can, we all know they will be gone too soon, as this has been and continues to be one of the fastest moving Springs that I can remember.

Never have I been more tempted to plant earlier than I normally plant than I have been tempted this year.

I even went by the local greenhouse earlier today just to see what they had. I ended up buying some petunias and browallias. In April! I’ve never bought annuals this early before, other than violas and pansies. But I was afraid if I didn’t snatch them up now all the early birds would get my worms… I mean flowers.

I haven’t potted them up yet, but I will soon enough.  I suppose if we have a big cold snap, I can put them in the garage or move them up close to the house since they will likely end up in containers.

In other news, Debra Prinzing of Slow Flowers, one of the garden writers I look up to and am inspired by, wrote a lovely piece about my little book for her site Slow Flowers Journal. I was touched by what she wrote and couldn’t believe some of the old pictures she found from a few of my first GWA: Association of Garden Communicators conferences. Good times those were and more good times are planned for the next conference in Buffalo, New York in August.

In more book related news, I got the nicest review on Amazon from Ellen Zachos, Backyard Forager. I had the privilege and good fortune to go on a foraging walk with her at the IMA last fall (where yes, we did see some people planting bulbs) and hear her speak. Her passion for foraging food makes me eye my flowering Kousa dogwood to see if it will have a good fruit crop this fall.  Those fruits are edible!

My book is still on Amazon, waiting for you to buy it. Or you can click on the link on the sidebar to buy a copy directly from me, either softcover ($20) or hardback ($27). That includes shipping and handling. I usually send books out the next business day. Sometimes the same business day.  Potted and Pruned is also available on Amazon UK and I look forward to someone “across the big pond” being the first to buy it over there.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go out and dig up more weeds.

With a shared love of gardening,
Carol