Sunday, January 01, 2006
Snowdrops At The New Year
The New Year, and thus also a new gardening year begin; on a mild day, with snow banks melting slowly in the anemic sunlight, Galanthus elwesii has made its appearance, thrusting up from the dark, cold earth... also known as the giant snowdrop, it blooms a month earlier for us than its smaller relative, G. nivalis; the European, or lesser snowdrop. It will be February usually, before we see the blooms even of elwesii, which most often appear here for Candlemas. The genus name Galanthus is derived from the Greek words, gala (milk) and anthos (flower), and elwesii (el-WEZ-ee-eye) honors H. J. Elwes, who first introduced it to cultivation in 1874, the plant's native haunts being in Eurasia, especially the western mountains of Turkey. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the plant's clever construction, in that the leaves are clasping, forming a point, with a whitish, hard tip to the leaves, so that it can bore up through the partially frozen soil. More cold and snow will surely return the garden to winter's grasp, but having seen these snowdrops peeping up through the fallen tree leaves, I am as confident that spring is on its way, as if I had seen a robin hopping across the lawn. 
// posted by IBOY @ 11:07 AM 
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I like this post. Good description! And I totally agree with you! What a great way to start the new year by gardening.
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: January 02, 2006
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