99 bulbs revisited

The 99 bulbs finally came up and bloomed. It was really fun to see the hard work in the fall show up so colorfully many months later. In the past, I had always tried to plant just pink and white thinking that keeping the palate of colors simple would work with colors of the house. I am so glad I let that go and embraced color. The tulips looked amazing next to the house and the purple and orange color combination was surprising pleasing to see everyday. The warm colors really drew attention as the other plants emerged.

I was sad this year to see our nice pink bleeding hearts not bloom - maybe they just couldn't compete with the spectacular showy beauty of the tulips.

The purple crocuses were much slower than the yellow and white never showed up. The remaining tulips were double tulips looking a bit like peonies.

Most years I find three or four cells of black pollen in the frames where the bees collect the tulip pollen together. I haven't seen it this year and I wonder if it is because so much of the pollen is late. Blooms are about three weeks later than usual so some thing are over lapping and without the draw of nectar, are the bees skipping the slim enticement of the black tulip pollen?  Or did they tuck it in somewhere I didn't look?