Tulip Garden

The tulip gardens, at Bedford Park next to the campus of the University of Southern Maine, are in full bloom this week. The tulip has to be one of my favorite flowers; it is so resilient- poking its head up, like a periscope, after tough Maine winters.

"We are told that in Persia the tulip, whose blossom in its native country
is scarlet, while the centre of its glowing cup is black, is used to express
warm affection; and, when sent by a lover, will convey to the object
of his attachment the idea that like this flower, his face is warm
and his heart is consumed as a coal."
~ Anne Pratt, The Field, the Garden and the Woodland, 1838