Artist: Philippe de Champaigne

Tulip mania or tulipomania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed.

At the peak of tulip mania, in March 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble (or economic bubble).

A Satire of Tulip Mania by Jan Brueghel the Younger (ca. 1640) depicts speculators as brainless monkeys in contemporary upper-class dress. In a commentary on the economic folly, one cheeky monkey urinates on the previously valuable plants, others appear in debtor’s court and one is carried to the grave.

Anonymous 17th-century watercolor of the Semper Augustus,

famous for being the most expensive tulip sold during tulip mania. (10,000 guilders.)

(From Wikipedia)

We have had a little slice of mania pie ourselves..

We have them growing in containers:

We have them growing in the ground:

This should surely put the “Dad why don’t you ever grow flowers” conversation to rest once and for all.

(Thanks for the bulbs JJ.)

The green berries on this Fatsia Japonica have now turned black.

There is so much fruit the stems are under strain.

Surprisingly the birds so far have left them alone.

Another great naturalizing bulb with a really ‘cool’ color are the Spring Starflowers:

Ipheion ‘Rolf Fiedler’

is an electric blue color which really pops against a dark background and looks particularly psychedelic reflected in the Cactusman’s eyeglasses.

What is really odd is how his eyes have come to fit his facial expression.

Moving along to my Largus Bug Infestation:

This plague has been around the Patch for a few months now with no intervention from me, well until recently.

I have been kicking this ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave’s butt for weeks now, attempting to dislodge the critters every time I walked past it, a futile activity but it was fun to watch the bugs get airborne.

This is the only plant/agave that has sustained damage from the Largus, here is a group of them slurping away on their favorite tall mocha.

I decided I would add something a little extra ahem ‘topping’ to their favorite beverage in the form of some Diatomaceous earth…feeling thirsty now?…

…I just bet you are.

A few days later the bugs were mostly gone and to my surprise a flower stalk was on the rise,

a rather curvacious one.

The only time I go under this sabal major in my hell-strip is to cut off the occasional low hanging limb. Some time ago I tucked a handful of sedum in at the base of the palm and totally forgot about it.

“Spread well has the sedum”

While I was in here I decided to check up on the inebriated cactus who was still looking, well…

…totally inebriated. 

Stay Tuned For:

“Bridge Over the River Why?”

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