Tulips a welcome, if brief, sign of spring

In years past, I've occasionally presented photos I'd taken in my home gardens of spring bulbs in bloom to help usher in spring. This year, I decided to show a few pictures of the tulip blooms from the Sunken Garden of nearby Garfield Park in Indy.

The park plants tulips for annual spring displays every year, then replaces them -- in the same beds -- with the annual summer show that usually lasts till September. On a designated date each spring, in that interim between spring and summer displays, conservatory staff invites the community to dig out and take home the tulip plants to make room for the summer show.

I've been in Garfield Park on more occasions than I can count, but since early February, I've been going there almost daily to walk as part of an exercise regimen that I hope will enable me to return to a thrice weekly running regimen, something I did for many, many years until about two years ago when I lapsed.

My walking route often puts me in the Sunken Garden, where I was on April 16 when I paused to take the pictures of the tulip display you see in this post, using my iPhone 6s Plus.

The blooms on the flowers that you see here have almost all blown away as of yesterday, but I present these as an annual reminder that spring is here ... and in recognition of how May 1, at least in prior years anyway, seemed to be the benchmark for prime tulip season. I found the combination of marbled orange-violet tulips, the solid-violets and marbled white-violets an interesting one. And then out of the blue, in only certain spots, there were a few solid pinks, too.

In the vertical stone planters situated along the garden overlook, conservatory staff planted burgundy and orange-yellow pansies, as seen in the very last photo below.

I am very familiar with the orange-violet blooms; I have some in my garden at home, pictures of which I've presented in posts in springs past. Sometimes I get frustrated with spring bulbs; their blooms don't last very long, and it seems forever before you get a chance to enjoy them again.

I mentioned this recently to a cousin of mine who is very enthusiastic about tulips. She reminded me that the reason she gets so excited is because tulips signal an end to winter (and/or the beginning of spring). I concurred, which softened my "frustration" somewhat. I didn't have the heart to remind her that it's not unprecedented (nor unusual) for an unforgiving frosty weather system to sweep through, often without much notice, and ... well, let's just say "change the landscape" of the tulips.