CHAPEL HILL - When Barbara Stiles stepped outside early Thursday morning to sweep the pollen off her patio, she found three people already wandering through her garden.

In her blue jeans and old sweatshirt, Stiles wasn't ruffled by the camera one of them had. She and her twin sister, Bernice Wade, not only expect such visitors, they invite them each spring to enjoy the chorus of colors from their blooming azaleas, tulips, anemones and columbine.

The sisters stake a small sign outside their tidy, white Gimghoul Road home that says simply, "The garden is open."

For years, their admirers were mostly local. But word of the sisters' garden spread, and now people from across the state, and even from Florida, come to see.

On Thursday morning, Stiles didn't have time to dawdle.

"At this time of year, we're running," she said.

The hustle began earlier than usual this year when the tulips popped open in March. Two busloads of senior citizens from Greensboro are booked daily Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The sisters, who will celebrate their 92nd birthday in two weeks, now ask for help from friends and family. Volunteers identify plants, assist seniors on the winding stone pathways, and even make coffee on the busiest days.

Wade's daughter, Anne Wade, moves in with them for April.

The sisters enjoy talking with as many people as they can, even if only briefly from their deck.

"Everybody has a story," Wade said. "Last Easter, a woman said, 'This is the 17th year we've been coming here to photograph our children in the garden on Easter Sunday.' "

A cold Easter forecast likely means fewer families visiting for those annual photographs, they suspect.

As for their flowers, they don't plan to try to cover their blooms from the frost. Past attempts didn't work. And they just have too many plants.

"I don't think it would hurt the tulips at this stage, but the azaleas are so delicate," Wade said.

The sisters earned their green thumbs in the small Arizona town of Miami, where they grew up. They used rinse water from their dishes and clothes to help their plants and trees flourish.

After attending a teachers college together in their home state, they both moved away.

Wade married and moved into the home on Gimghoul Road in 1944. She taught school, while Stiles' career with the Girl Scouts took her to London.

When Wade's husband died in 1978, Stiles moved into Wade's mother-in-law apartment.

Against a back drop of well-established red, pink and white azaleas, they now plant 2,000 tulip bulbs every season, then pull them out and start fresh the next year.

"We just don't have that much space, so that's our extravagance," Wade said. If left in, the bulbs would divide and the flowers would be few and small.

The word among gardeners is that the sisters' summer garden, with its dahlias and lillies, is beginning to rival their spring show, but Wade quickly dismisses that notion.

"We count our years by springs," Wade said. "We always say let's hope we have a few more springs."