My Favorite Kind Of Flower

There are many things I love about our finally having turned the corner from winter to spring here in southeast Minnesota. (I hope!) Things like having the windows open, going for a bike ride, plus the plants, shrubs and trees that are beginning to bud and, in some cases, already bloom. But what's my favorite kind of flower?

I

t's the ones that are show here, in our front yard. I'm not sure what's all planted there -- the people who owned the house before we bought it three years ago planted everything -- but there have been a couple of sturdy, hardy flowers that bloom each spring, without us having to do anything. And THAT'S why they're my favorites!

I don't exactly have a green thumb, so while we try to keep the landscaping and native vegetation looking nice every year (my wife just spent part of Sunday afternoon pulling all the weeds out of the front yard, for instance), getting an award-winning flower garden growing certainly isn't our goal.

But I do appreciate those purple/violet flowers that are already blooming (are they perhaps a Phlox Sherwood Purple?) , and the addition of that light red/pink flower that looks like it might be a tulip. (And, of course, our solar-powered garden lights have hung in there through another Minnesota winter, too.)  Keep blooming, guys-- I'm rooting for you!