Spring of 2020

Uncategorized — March 20, 2020May 25, 2023

singlesnowdropcropsmall — The gracious Galanthus

Spring arrived yesterday, officially, and it’s turning out quite differently from what we had expected. With many of us “sheltering at home”, I took the opportunity to clean up some of last year’s leaves and debris to allow the earliest bulbs a chance to show off: the modest snowdrop. I have one patch with highly doubled blooms and there is surprising variety in the green markings if you get down close to examine them. My main reference source on them, Aaron P. Davis’ The Genus Galanthus, (1999) notes that the blooms open at temperatures above 10 degrees C and close at lower temperatures. Galanthus are pollinated by bees: I have yet to spot any around my garden, but will keep a lookout. Welcome back!

Garden Journal

Lost Horizons farewell

Inspirational nursery, treasure trove of botanical diversity, enticement to garden adventurously, vendor of plant delight. With much appreciation, thank you!

Early Spring Pleasures

When bees come to visit the earliest flowers, I know that spring is truly here. … Read More

The Lowly Spirea at its Loveliest

Even the lowly (because ubiquitous) spirea can surprise you with loveliness on a blustery day in April. My main complaint is that it has too many merits, requires too little of us, which seems churlish just now, when spirea is the first shrub to leaf out most bravely. … Read More

Spring of 2020

Galanthus, more commonly: snowdrops, are one of the earliest garden pleasures in the year, often breaking through the snow long before February is over. And now in mid-March they are still looking splendidly sturdy. They are a welcome sign that spring is indeed progressing and that renewal can happen. Again. … Read More

Garden reading

Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) is a book that will astonish in its subtle weave of forms of knowing our world and in its homage to the generosity of the plants that surround us, made us, and can save us. … Read More

Garden Journal

recent posts:

Lost Horizons farewell

Early Spring Pleasures

The Lowly Spirea at its Loveliest

Spring of 2020

Garden reading