Tulipomania!

Tulips were in full bloom today at the Montreal Botanical Garden. Here is a photo of the entrance garden with its mass planting of Foseteriana Tulips.

The bed that I photographed two weeks ago with red tulips is now ablaze in yellow and white

I saw many more tulip varieties throughout the garden.

The pink tulips below are particlarly striking next to the brilliant blue of grape hyacinth.

Next I decided to head over to the Lesley Hancock Garden to check out the azaleas and rhododendrons. There were a few bushes in flower, such as the one below, for which I gave a clearly audible "wow," but the garden will probably only reach its full peak of flowering closer to the end of May.

But today belongs to the tulip, one of the most fascinating of all the flowers, with a rich and colourful history, as I discovered when I was researching my book "Tulip Haiku'" (Shoreline, 2004).

At the end of today's visit, I sat in the Peace Garden and wrote a few haiku and tanka. The Peace Garden has lately become my favorite place for writing.

my thoughts painted
dandelion yellow
and tulip red


snatching at a bright
red tulip petal--the child
in pink pastel

moving
from the tulip's red
to the violet's blue--
I still find it hard
to believe in happy endings

photographing his wife
by the red tulips--
she poses
like a young girl,
a witchng girl


it's all cliche
my writing about love--
there's only one word
to describe these tulips:
"red!"


And as I leave the garden

the sound of city traffic
outside the garden gate
a drop of rain