Saturday, January 06, 2007

First Snowdrop


I was out nosing about the garden on a bright, sunny day; the birds have it in their heads that it must be spring, and two male red-bellied woodpeckers were having at it, in an early territorial spat. I ran back in for the camera, but the loser was already gone by the time I got back out there; woodpecker dustups never seem to last very long. Anyway, although feathers were flying, it's hard to take woodpecker fights very seriously; it's like watching Woody Woodpecker scooting up and down the trees. Since I had the camera, I decided to check out the snowdrops; with our warm winter they've been growing steadily, and being afraid that sooner or later we must be in line for some seriously cold weather, I earlier decided to throw piles of leaves on them, hoping to keep them from getting too frisky; sort of like yelling upstairs, "You kids get to sleep, or there's going to be trouble!" It's only been partially succesful, as one is already blooming; my first snowdrop of the year. As shown a while back, I actually had a snowdrop blooming around Thanksgiving, but I couldn't decide if that was the last snowdrop of last year, or the first snowdrop of this year; we're not used to this four season gardening stuff. It looks like, if we don't get too wintery, that there will be lots more snowdrops blooming quite soon; scores of them are in full bud. These of course are Galanthus elwesii, the early or great snowdrop, with lovely grayish-green foliage. So, for better or worse, considering that it's barely past New Year's, and cold, snowy weather is forecast for late next week, the gardening year begins. Posted by Picasa

Comments:
I love snowdrops! Congratulations on finding these beauties blooming so early. My first snowdrop encounter was in 1983. The previous homeowner had planted a bank of them in the front garden of our first house. We didn't even know they were there when we purchased the house in the fall. Ever since then, I have loved this lovely little bulb.
 
Cali... there are lots of flashier and prettier flowers, but I'll have to admit I probably fuss over the snowdrops more than any other flower.
don
 
You get the First Snowdrop of 2007 Award--North American Division, at least. I think anyone on this continent that could have beat you either doesn't have a garden blog or lives in too hot of a climate. Those Texans are busy blooming the kind of narcissus I can only grow inside the house, after all.
 
Kathy... thanks for the award... uh, what did I win? I suppose this is one of those honorary awards.
Don
 
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