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.
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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
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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Don
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