What Are You Searching For?

Late last fall, I planted a big bag of bulbs in various places in my yard.

To me, the bright colors of crocuses, daffodils and tulips are a deserved reward after a long, hard winter.

I’ve seen people plant bulbs in uncommon places in grassy areas, and I thought it would be fun to plant most of this bag around one of our birches out back.


A circle of bright yellows and purples around a white birch was certain to chase away the winter blahs, right?

As the dawn of spring came and went, I checked the perimeter around my tree almost daily for a sign of the flowers but none came. In other places, my bulbs seemed to be popping up, but I saw no sign of those I put around the tree.

What had happened? Did something eat the bulbs? Was it a bad place to plant them? Maybe they didn’t like the soil around a tree?  I considered digging them up and planting them somewhere else, but the idea of rooting through the dirt for some no-show bulbs made me tired just thinking about it.

I was about fed up with them when a sunny day drew the girls and me into the yard for some garden fun. As I walked past our other birch tree I noticed some daffodils circling it that were just getting ready to bloom.

My bulbs! I was looking around the wrong tree! Never did I consider looking at my other birch tree! I had been so sure!

The thing that I had been searching for had been there all along – it just wasn’t where I had been looking ...

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