Tulips: Blooms of beauty, but no soup, please

Special to The Clinton Courier

Tulip bulbs can be more than the way to beautiful flowers, according to Karen Wilson, who spoke at a recent meeting of the Happy Gardeners Club. Pointing out that tulip bulb soup was a Dutch dish that came from desperate times in Holland during World War II, the speaker did not offer members recipes. Although intrigued by the idea of cooking tulip bulbs for a meal, no members volunteered to prepare and share a tulip dish at a future meeting. Instead, Wilson, from the Olive Branch floral and gift shop, skillfully filled a variety of vases and unique containers with tulips and other flowers, demonstrating the knack of arranging spring blooms for special occasions.

She said that tulips were once perceived as valuable as gold in Holland. “Tulip mania” has described the time during the 17th century when a great demand for tulips resulted in high prices. People were swept up in a speculative fever, sometimes spending a year’s salary on rare bulbs in hopes of reselling them for a profit.

After a question-and-answer session, club members then discussed the challenging winter status of The Clinton Courier-Happy Gardener Yard of the Month promotion. Winter days resulted in brown lawns throughout the city. However, the Japanese magnolia trees evaded damage from cold days and have bloomed on the Mississippi College campus and at a number of homes. Daffodils have begun blooming, and a reader shared a photo of daffodil or narcissus blooms that she rescued from her back lawn before predicted heavy rainfall and low temperatures threatened the blooms.

“We feel that in a few weeks, spring flowers and particularly azaleas will be making lawns in Clinton bright and beautiful,” said Cheryl Yeagley, special projects chairperson. “Having a Yard of the Month will be less of a challenge than these past wintry weeks.”

 

 

Anyone wishing to nominate a Yard of the Month should direct the thought to Yeagley at cyeagley13@gmail.com.