These started up last December during a warm spell, and I was afraid I would lose them, but with a blanket of pine needles, they survived all our winter could dish out to them to bloom gloriously in late June. This is not a piece of fabric, although I would not at all mind finding some patterned like this. Near center in the picture is one iris with doubled inner petals. It is this picture that is used as the background pattern for this page. After the tulips along the walk faded, I cut back the grass to two feet and planted Purple Ruffles basil, provided again this year by a friend in Michigan.
Purple basil has a unique flavor and is vital to a number of Armenian recipes.
With the additional space along the walk, this fall will find me planting more bulbs. They prefer to snooze on the cover over the printer and soak up the heat from the lamp. My pink Oriental lilies that just grew and grew. This started as 10 bulbs planted in 1996. For some reason, this area seems to produce unusually tall plants.