or this:

or this:

or even this:

You need to be planting your bulbs after the first frost, but about six weeks before the soil freezes.  When the average temperature is about 50 degrees, it is time to work your magic.

Dutch Gardens has a sale going and they have an exhaustive selection of tulips, daffodils, muscari… everything you need to plant a gorgeous spring display.

Good luck to you!

These bright blue beauties from early July now look like this:

As the bloom ages, it fades to this beautiful green. I promise it is the same plant. Scout’s honor.

By fall they will dry themselves and be ready to cut for indoor beauty all winter long.

A delicious bouquet!

Besides what I take for cuttings, I don’t prune my plants until the spring.  By then I can see which stems are dead and which have new life.  Then I just prune off all the dead stuff and these happy campers proliferate.

This is the front garden of a home in Colorado.  While it required some serious manual labor to achieve this level of beauty, the reward is spectacular.  Particularly for those of us who didn’t spend the hours to plant it.

Above: white alyssum, zinnias, and roses.

Zinnias are perhaps my favorite.  Maybe.  They just radiate happiness.

Zinnias, lantanas, and some pretty yellow flowers whose name is escaping us.

Gerbera daisies, dahlias, snapdragons, verbenia, and red salvia.

White alyssum, dahlias, African daisies, and zinnias.

Blue Delphinium, blue salvia, and roses.

The same combo from a different angle.

And just in case you didn’t get enough of the zinnias, here they are in a bevy of colors.

So here’s how you can create this beauty:

1. Move to Colorado.

2. Dig a garden, preferably on a slope.

3. Plant a few rose bushes.

4. Cram as many annuals in as possible, particularly zinnias, dahlias, and alyssum.

5. Water it like crazy.

6. Have the Colorado sun beat down.

7. Water it some more.

8. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

But here’s why that can’t happen…

The elder adorable picks them as soon as they have a hint of red, but are still mostly green.

And then he reduces them to rubble.

This was the fruit of the heirloom “Mortgage Lifter”.   I haven’t had the opportunity to try one yet, but they look pretty delicious.

Accessory to the crime.

We spray off with the hose after this, because these delicious (so I’m told) tomatoes are wicked juicy.

And then he hands me this…

Somehow in their pillaging, they missed these…

I’m going to pick them in the middle of the night.

Well not all of it was jungle…

These Stargazer Lilies were actually quite pretty, if a little untamed.

But this one purple perennial geranium (yes, it’s a single plant) has created a mini-jungle for me to clear out.  It’s wrapped itself around everything else in its vicinity.  If it weren’t so pretty, I’d whack at it.

These pink impatiens were puny and straggly and I was about to give up on them.  And then Poof!  Huge.

These are from a climbing rose bush that I deadheaded in hopes of seeing another show of blooms.  Reward is sweet, and smells good too.

The biggest surprise was from the vegetable garden.

This May the adorables pushed these sunflower seeds into the soil with their chubby little fingers.  When we left at the beginning of July, they were 6 inches tall and floundering.  A little rain and sunshine and kaboom!

This is the best luck I’ve had with tomato plants in the 4 years I’ve been trying to grow them.   See here for info about these red trays and ladders.  I think they are a hit!

Sweet 100 Cherry tomatoes in about a week!

So here’s the whole row of sunflowers, 12 tomato plants, 3 basils, 2 cukes, 2 green peppers, multiple lettuce and tons of marigolds.  It’s 40 feet long and 1 foot wide and packed with yum.

These blue beauties are “Endless Summer” and they bloom – you’ll never guess – all summer long.  I can hack at these and give huge bouquets away to friends and family and they just keep on coming.  The flowers can get between 8-12 inches across.  They are whopper-size.

In our postage-stamp yard, I have 17 hydrangeas planted.

This “Endless Summer” variety can be either be blue or pink, depending on the composition of your soil.  Every spring, I mix aluminum sulfate (available at any garden center) with water and pour it directly on the plants.  My plants tend to be pinky/purple without the sulfate.  Every 2 weeks, more can be added to get just the right blue, but I’m usually proud of myself for getting around to the first application and quit there.

These pinky mopheads are called “Pia”.  They are a dwarf variety and perfect for borders.  I have them interspersed with some leafy green hostas in one bed.

This is a one-year old “Annabelle”, which explains why it looks a little bare.  In the coming years, it will be abundant with giant white gorgeous-ness.

Come fall, the blue “Everlasting Summer” turn a beautiful pinky blue as the remaining flowers age, and I cut them completely dry from the plant for indoor displays during the winter.  I’ll show you when we get there…