In article ,
Frogleg wrote:

[snip]
... Daffodils, OTOH, will have
fewer blooms as they multiply in place, and are invigorated by being
dug up, divided, and replanted. However, this is clearly visible in
the spring when you have a fine crop of dense foliage and 1 or 2
blooms.


Hmmm... Actually, now that you mention it, there is also a bunch
of daffodils along the fence that are just like that -- they are
as thick as weeds, but have *relatively* few blooms (though because
they are so dense, there are a fair number).

As an aside, here's a tulip story:

Near the family ranch in Oklahoma, there is a small field with a copse
of black oak. All around those oaks are "wild" tulips, that have been
growing there since it was Indian Territory.

The story is that back in the 1800s, during the migration of Mormons to
the Great Salt Lake, a few families came through this part of
Oklahoma. Along the way, smallpox swept through the group. A number of
the children died.

The Mormons had suffered Indian attack, and were afraid that the
Indians would desecrate the graves of their children if they marked
where they laid the children. Instead of putting up stones, they
planted tulips.

A few decades later, the area was settled by refugees from the War
Between the States who sought refuge with the Indians (the tribes in
the area had fought with the Confederacy), and was an integrated
community well before the Land Rush of 1899. Since the 1860s, at
least, that little copse had been respected as a gravesite.

Though the land has gone through many owners, nobody has ever put up
markers or farmed the area where the tulips grow. They are afraid
to put up markers for fear that the government will seize the land,
and because the original families marked the graves with tulips rather
than stone. They never cleared the land because they respect the
it as a graveyard.

So, every spring, there's a crop of wild tulips at the edge of
the prarie reminding us of the death of those unnamed Mormon
children.


billo