The Tulip and the Black Thumb -- A Love Story

I can grow kids -- lots and lots of kids -- but give me something in plant form, and watch it shivel and die a horrific, tragic death. Well, I'm pretty good at cactus. Too bad I don't like them. And there's an aloe that Carly gave me a few years back at Christmas that I've kept BARELY alive -- it's not really green right now, more of a pale poopy greenish color, but it's mostly alive. And the worst part of it all is that my dad can grow ANYTHING -- gorgeous flowers, hugely over-abundant vegetable gardens. Then I look at the flowers in his backyard and you can HEAR the leaves quivering in fear because I'm near.
And looking their direction.

Then this last Christmas, as I was making my dad a wishing well for his present, I found some bulbs on sale. I picked up some beautiful blood-red tulips and we put them in the ground and guess what?? Apparently if you ignore that patch of ground for a few months, MAGIC happens.

My tulip first presented signs of red two days ago. Today, though, it stood proudly in full glory, so I thought I'd share it with you. Ya know, so you can see it before I somehow destroy it with my mere presence. Maybe I'll keep ignoring it, now that I have a photo as proof.

Stay tuned for our next part of this love story and we'll see if it has a Happily Ever After or ya know, more of a Romeo & Juliet kind of ending.

Wish me luck!