Getting Tulips to Bloom for Two Months
by: Doug Green
Would you like to have tulips blooming for two months in your garden? Planting a few each of the following different types will ensure a long season color show.
For the most part, the species tulips bloom the earliest.
You?ll know they are species because they have those fancy Latin names on the labels.
You?ll see name like ?greigii?, ?kaufmanniana?, and ?tarda?.
While they bloom earlier than the hybrids, they are also the shortest so do make sure you plant them at the front of the garden.
And, if you want a naturalized looking garden, the species tulips are the most natural looking and will tend to self-sow.
As a rule of thumb, the later the tulip blossom comes, the taller the flower. The next earliest bloomers are only slightly taller than the earliest species tulips.
Blooming at twelve to eighteen inches are the mid-season bloomers.
You?ll see names like ?fosteriana?, ?single early? and ?double early? on those enticing labels.
Most of these have sturdy stems to hold the flowers upright in spring storms so you can plant them almost anywhere in the garden.
Do note that most of the colors of these plants fall into the hot red, yellow and orange part of our color wheel.
Designers use them because they provide an exciting dash of spring color and contrast well with the emerging leaves of nearby perennials.
Then we come to the late season tulips.
These big guys bloom towards the end of May and you?ll find names such as ?lily flowering?, ?single late?, ?double late?, ?viridiflora? and ?parrot tulips?.
Most of these later tulips reach for the sky (they get knocked down in storms) and hold their flowers eighteen to twenty four inches above the ground.
They also come in the widest range of colors and flower at the same time as your early perennials.
About The Author
Doug Green is an award winning garden author (7 books published) who answers gardening questions in his free newsletter at http://www.flower-garden-bulbs.com.
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Spring Break
Spring Break
by: Mark Stone
"Spring break!" The mere mention of the phrase would conjure distinct visions of fun for any particular age group in American history. For well-heeled college students at least as far back as the 19th Century, the spring holiday was a casual time to recuperate from academic stresses. For those who came of age in the late 1950s and early 60s, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello defined and inspired a more established spring break ritual. Young adults today, who have never known life without MTV, experience spring break as an aggressively produced and marketed event that has all the flash of a rock concert, major sporting event, and fashion show, all rolled into one annual beach blast.
Over the years, spring break revelers have made a home for themselves at many different beach locales. The Frankie and Annette crowd could be found primarily at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Daytona Beach and Panama City Beach, also in Florida,...
Spring Break
Spring break > Spring Break
How Do I Know Whether Or Not I Will End Up Saving Money When Refinancing My Home Loan?
How Do I Know Whether Or Not I Will End Up Saving Money When Refinancing My Home Loan?
by: Derek Gardner
To save money, you must live in your house longer than the "break-even period" ? the period over which the interest savings just cover the refinance expenses. The larger the spread between the new interest rate and the rate on your existing loan, the shorter the break-even period. The more it cost to get the new loan, the longer the break-even period.
But be careful. The break-even period is not the cost of the new loan divided by the decrease in the monthly mortgage expense. This broadly used rule of thumb is a misapplication of the principle that when explaining something to the buyer one should "keep it simple." Simple is fine, except for when it is wrong.
The rule of thumb does not permit for the difference in how rapidly you pay off the new loan as opposed to the old one.
Let us say that in 1996 you took out an 11% 30-year...
Spring break > How Do I Know Whether Or Not I Will End Up Saving Money When Refinancing My Home Loan?