T is Tulips and Turtleheads

I’ll start with tulips first and leave you to scratch your head about turtleheads for a little bit. Photo as seen through the branches of one of my Japanese maples.

Tulips are one of those plants (bulbs) I love but in many cases they get weaker over the years and don’t multiply themselves as well as other spring bulbs. (I was going to use the term peter-out but I used that in an earlier post, but it is still a good word to use here.) Some of the early flowering varieties will spread some, but the really cool, fancy ones seem only good for a season or two. The ones below have come back pretty well over five years+.

Last fall I splurged and bought two varieties (white ones and purple both ‘fringed’) of tulips and some daffodils and planted them across my front flower beds. I must of had a few left-over as I have a few blooming now by the narrow bed on the end of the porch by the driveway. I hope these will all come back next year…and the year after…but I’m not going to hold my breath.

And Turtleheads – yes a plant.

And see why it is called turtlehead. In looking for this photo I learned that besides the purple color, which I have, this plant also comes in varieties with rosy pink and also white flowers. I might have to go looking for those.

Turtlehead likes it moist and the first place I ever saw this plant was ‘in the wild’ in Wisconsin in the ditches by my parents’ property up by Athens, Wisconsin. The plant I have has done quite well here in Tulsa. Of course it was purchased locally so that is usually a good sign that it will thrive in the area, but not always. It has formed a nice clump and it doesn’t look like it will need dividing anytime soon. Oh and the botanical name is ‘Chelone obliqua’. Chelone is latin for turtle.

So Turtleheads for a different ‘t’.