New Life in My Garden

I am so excited about this plant that bloomed in a pot on my patio:

For years, a little patch of something that looked like bulbs popped up each spring in a remote corner of my garden. But the plant--whatever it was--never produced any flowers. It struggled mightily: It was too close to an air conditioner, too stuck in a corner to get enough sun, etc. etc.

I waited for it, year after year, to gather enough strength to produce a bloom. It never did. So one day last summer, I dug the little pathetic blob up (after the leaves had withered in the sun). I placed the little what-are-they? bulbs in a paper bag in a cool corner of my garage. And then I waited.

In January, I popped the bulbs into a pot, covered them up with potting soil, and sent out a prayer to the Garden Fairies.

And this year, for the first time ever, my mystery bulbs flowered! They are Narcissus bulbs--with really small blooms, not as big across as my thumb.

But they smell just like the drifts of daffodils I remember from the Kansan springs of my childhood.