Tulips are in full bloom! turning out to be much earlier then last year & even more surprises!

Full view of my entire garden April 22nd,

Tulips from my former 2009 fridge project are in full bloom this week, making this the most sucessful Spring garden I ever grown. Just like Daffodils are, Tulips are extra early this year. One of the earliest I've ever recorded! in the past 3 years I've been observing Tulips in my garden, they generally were in bloom the second to 3rd week of May. including last year when Tulips were in full bloom on May 10th, This is typical bloom time for Tulips in Western Wisconsin, so it is very easy to tell were having an earlier then normal spring growth, up to as much as 3 weeks!

4 Tulips along side many yellow Daffodils April 22nd, both former fridge projects from 2009

Even though this has already been a very exciting spring for me in the garden, I am continuing to be extremely surprised at the way these Tulips from the fridge 2 winters ago are blooming. They are absolutely beautiful! When I saw these sprouting earlier in the season I was expecting maybe a tulip or 2 would flower since it is known that tulip bulbs grown in a refrigerator are severely weakened and do not bloom again, but I actually got not a decrease in number of flowers, but a significant increase! I have a total of 17 flowers from these bulbs this year, where last year I had 10 from the same number of bulbs, That's in increase by 7 flowers! The clump that had the least number of flowers last year has the most this year, and the batch that had the highest number now has the least.

A batch of a dozen Tulips April 22nd.

A couple interesting things about this particular batch of Tulips is not only the fact that there was only 4 blooms here last year, which is an increase by 6 flowers, But the color in which these are arranged. These were bought in 2 mixed bags of colors they were supposed to be colors of pinks, reds, purples and such that I mixed up and planted at random in cups before putting in the fridge in Winter of 09, I just think it's interesting how it looks like I had a plan when really I didn't! It appears like a "rainbow" of colors in waves, If you notice, from the left side of the picture to right, light orange is on the side, yellow in the middle, red in the second middle section, and darker orange on the right side! Even in the other clump in the photo above this one, there happens to be 2 reds, 2 yellows, It's interesting how things turn out sometimes!

The Tulips from my 2010 fridge project have not yet bloomed because they were planted at a later time, and the ones left in the ground really got ahead of them. I will post once those open There are supposed to be some fancy ones!