Tulips and more

The tulips have been enjoying the cool weather and lasting for a few weeks. The sideways trellis is there because I am going to train a purple clematis, which is just visible on the right, to clamber along it.

These double red tulips were just so vibrant in the sun. I find the double tulips come back reliably for several years.  I have had Angelique pink tulips in the past and had good success with them. Near the upper right corner, some species yellow tulips are also blooming.  They are self-sowing a bit which is great. They are an alternative to crocus which the chipmunks eat.

I never planted any tulips here and I have never bought tulips of this colour so two things are going on here.  Some tulip that I bought has changed colour over time, as tulips will sometimes do, and a furry helper decided this was a good place for them.  I would not have planted tulips here because it is a pretty shady spot once the trees leaf out.  How is it that they are doing well, multiplying in fact, when tulips are supposed to need a sunny location?  I think it is working because they get the spring sun and then the tree roots keep the soil dry through the summer.  So it is a shady spot, but it is a dry spot.  That's my theory anyway.

Some other pretty tulips.  The small red ones are probably Greigii tulips. I can't remember as I got them several years ago.  They are multiplying and I will dig them up in the fall , plant some in other places and replant some here.

The native merry bells (Uvularia) really makes a fine garden specimen. Sometimes it is offered by nurseries.  I just took a bit of a clump from a patch growing wild in our bush decades ago and put it in better soil and more light.  Now I have multiple patches. After the flowers finish, it leafs out more and makes a nice yellowy green clump.

More primulas just because.

Grape hyacinths.  My problem is deciding whether to leave them in the garden or put some in a little vase and enjoy their grapey scent.  I think I need to plant more of them.
 

This patch of trilliums looks pretty with the blue brunnera peeking through.