Garden fairies here.
We are garden fairies and we are going to fess up to something we did in Carol’s garden. But first, before we offer our “fess up” let us tell you that we make no apologies.
After all, we are garden fairies and we do as we please so maybe what we are doing is actually taking credit.
Yes, we did it. We opened up the surprise lilies, Lycoris squamigera a few weeks earlier than normal.
Why did we do that, you ask? Well, it all started with a little dare from SweetPea MorningGlory to Violet GreenPea MayDreams.
SweetPea said, “I dare you to open up the surprise lilies early.”
Violet said, “Why would I want to do that?”
“Cuz it would be funny to see Carol’s face when she saw it. I bet she’d stop, look at her watch for the date, then look around to see what else is messed up in the garden.”
“Well, yes, that would be funny but who’s to say she’d see it. She isn’t out here much when it’s hot and it sure has been hot lately.”
“Oh, she’ll see it. She comes out in the early mornings lots of times.”
“Since when?!”
“Since… I don’t know when. It’s not my job to watch for her. Just do it and let’s see if she notices.”
So, Violet did just that and opened the surprise lilies earlier than normal. Carol saw it straight-away and pretty much did as we garden fairies predicted she would do. She looked at her watch for the date, then looked around to see what else was messed up in the garden.
And we are garden fairies. When we say “messed up”, we don’t mean all the weeds. We’ve given up on Carol ever weeding. No. When we say “messed up”, we mean making flowers bloom early.
After the success of the early blooming surprise lilies, we decided to really go all out and so guess what we did.
That’s right. We made the toad lilies, Tricyrtis sp., bloom early.
You just look up “toad lilies” why don’t you, Dear Reader, and you will find that they are “fall bloomers”. And we garden fairies know that July isn’t “fall”. That’s what makes this so funny.
But wait, we are garden fairies and we like to see blooms in the garden so if we have fall bloomers blooming now, what will we have blooming when it is actually Fall?
Hold that thought. We garden fairies need to stop these shenanigans before things get too out of hand.
“Hey, Rainbow Tanglefly, get away from those asters. We absolutely do not want to open the blooms on them just yet. Rainbow… we mean it!”
Submitted by:
Violet GreenPea MayDreams, Chief Scribe for the Garden Fairies at May Dreams Gardens.
The garden fairies in my garden have been at work too. We have a toad lily that is finished blooming. Odd things happening in the garden this year. It must mean a Fairy uprising.
My Lycoris has not bloomed yet. My husband and I are moving to a new home. It is a blank slate. I am sad to leave all the beautiful flowers I have, but excited to see what I can do in our new home.
And I suppose you Garden Fairies are responsible for making my Azalea bloom in July – just messing with my mind! You can be sure your cousins here in Mississippi are busy in my garden.
I have a question for you. I understand that you can just touch a plant and it will bud and bloom, but how do you make bulbs come up before their time. Perhaps a moonlight dance above them as they lie sleeping in the ground?
Garden fairies seem to have many ways to laugh at me when I walk through the garden. They have been making me wait and wait for everything! Maybe they will laugh again when everything is in bloom in September. I'd laugh with them.
My garden fairies opened toad lilies early here too. I have spoiled their fun by cutting the Tricyrtis back. They'll get a nice blanket of leaf mold compost. I hear the garden fairies don't like blankets in the summer here since it's so hot … hopefully they'll leave the toad lilies alone until fall! They will probably find something else to mess with.