I will say that I do enjoy bulbs up north. Back in 2006 I visited my grandparents in WV in May. It was the last time I saw my Grandpa as he died that September. As kids, we had always gone in August during our summer break. But since I got old
and then when the parents retired, we just go whenever we want. It's been fun to go at different times of year and see the different plants and butterflies. So that first time we came in May, my brother was driving us the last bit to my grandparent's house. I hate driving it because it's very rural and the roads are very twisty. I've thrown up on the sides of those roads so many times! But this time I was staring out the window because everyone's Irises were in bloom. And I was just gobsmacked. It was so beautiful! I also loved seeing my grandma's Peony in bloom. Suddenly, all the gardening catalogs made sense! They were selling to people in these zones - not to Floridians like me!
I've also gone earlier in April and seen Hyacinths and Tulips. They're pretty awesome.
I'm into genealogy and on that trip we hunted down some of the old family cemeteries in Eastern Kentucky (with help from the internet). Florida is so new that we have very few old cemeteries like that so it was a surprise to see small, family cemeteries on the top of a hill instead of huge, manicured cemeteries. They have those too, but there are a lot of small cemeteries. And one thing I loved is that people at some point had planted bulbs on the graves of my ancestors. I could see where the daffodils had finished and the Irises were still blooming. The way bulbs last and tend to spread, I couldn't help but wonder how long they had been planted there. Not to encourage cemetery robbing, but I wonder if anyone has ever looked for "heirloom" or "lost" varieties of bulbs in old cemeteries? Just a thought.
We plan on going up in the last two weeks of May this year so hopefully I'll get to see some blooming bulbs again. I've been trying to do traditional West Virginian things so I want to participate in Decoration Day. I'm always hanging out in the cemeteries, anyway. Might as well make myself useful. Last year, Dad and I went to a genealogy conference in Louisa, KY in September and then drove over to see Grandma. My West Virginian thing then was to finally eat a Pawpaw. My grandpa loved them - and so does my aunt from the way she devoured them. I thought it was pretty good, myself. Kind of tropical, like a pineapple.
It can be tough being a Floridian gardener. Catalogs aren't really aimed at us, for the most part. And from a business standpoint, I totally understand. The companies have to sell plants that appeal to the majority of customers and since only a small part of the country is subtropical, that doesn't include us most of the time. When I first started gardening, I made a lot of mistakes planting things that had no hope of growing here. At least, not long term. We had Foxglove in the flight cage at MOSI this winter and so many people commented on it but I had to warn them that it wouldn't last in our heat.
But I guess wherever you live, the grass seems greener on the other side at times. I just remind myself of all my bromeliads and orchids I could never raise up north. In fact, when we went to a museum in WV they had a small conservatory in the front and they were growing some plants that people here just grow in their yards! That kind of put things in perspective for me. And that's also one of the fun parts of traveling. Getting to see other types of ecosystems and all the flora and fauna that live in them can be so fascinating.
