Walking down the Magnificent Mile on our first full say in Chicago we spotted this lovely spot. A beautiful fountain set in the middle of flower beds packed to the brim lined with perfectly manicured shrubs.
And then to my horror we saw this…
At first I was just stunned. Why on earth would someone rip thousands of tulips along with their bulbs out of the ground while they were in their peak. Watching the landscapers work their way through the flower beds was like watching a massacre. Men stooped over yanking the perfect white tulips from their place, piles of tulips lay battered and broken in their wake.
And then I snapped out of it and something occurred to me. Bulbs.
If I acted quickly I might be able to save at least a few of these beautiful plants. It would take a cunning and daring plan. A plan that only the bravest of women could execute.
So I walked up to one of the gentlemen being paid to rip these perfectly beautiful flowers out of the ground to make room for a new type of flower and asked him if I could have some of the flowers with bulbs still attached. He looked at me like I was crazy, apparently asking landscape professionals for the plants they are demolishing is not normal behavior in Chicago, then bent over picked up a small pile of tulips with bulbs and handed them over to me. Victory was mine! That guy never had a chance. *ahem* Or something like that.
I am now the proud owner of some premium tulip bulbs that will hopefully grow in my yard sometime in the future.
And walking back to the hotel I only got a dozen or so worried looks and one verbal warning that the cops were going to hunt me down and throw me in jail for ripping the cities tulips out of the ground. Little did those people know that some city landmark was paying people to do just that, because obviously it is better to waste perfectly good bulbs and have empty beds than to let the tulip *gasp* wilt before planting new flowers.
