Pre-Ordering My Way to Spring

It has been so cold and disgusting outside for so many months that I have become especially susceptible to the lush, colorful emails that arrive once a week from Breck's, purveyors of premium Dutch bulbs since 1818.

I can only imagine how costly and risky their overseas sales efforts must have been back in the day, but the advent of the Interwebs must be great for anyone in the plant business.

Hey there, frozen Wisconsinite!, they might as well say. Do you miss colors other than white and gray? Check out THESE babies!

Mmmmm...Giant Columbine mixture for the front garden...



"2- to 3-inch blooms," you say?

"Charming, bonnetlike flowers in shades of blue, yellow, rose and red above mounds of fernlike leaves"? "Carefree plants [that] attract butterflies"? And they actually grow in zone 5?!

With these planted out front, I might actually visit the front of my house more often!

Next up, new specimens for the shade garden:



Exotic Jack-in-the-Pulpit for the shade garden in back. In four varieties, no less?

"These hard-to-find exotics look like tender summer bulbs but are actually winter hardy perennials. You get tropical beauty without the hassle - no need to lift in the fall!"

And did you say deer-resistant? Sign me up!

I don't even care that these plants won't arrive until early summer and that they probably won't bloom until 2010. I will gladly fork over some cash for these pretty pictures and a head full of glorious garden daydreams in the meantime.

Photo credits: Breck's (Columbine) and InAweOfNature.com (Jack-in-the-Pulpit).