It's Meteorological Spring!

 

A local witch hazel bush is covered with squiggly flowers now, despite the sudden return of frigid temperatures. My fingers nearly froze while I was taking pictures of it this morning! It's officially spring now, starting March 1 according to the reckoning of meteorologists. In another 17 days, we'll achieve astronomical spring at the equinox.

To recap -- the crocuses in my yard came out last week. Click to enlarge. 

Snowdrops appeared in early February.

And now this. Welcome, early bloomers!

31 Days Until Spring

 

Snowdrops are blooming despite the icy rain. Click to enlarge the photo. I have started counting down to spring. Here's a link to a website that makes that easy: https://days.to/until/spring. It tracks other things, too. Like, the next full moon is 4 days away. Just 22 days to Robert Burns Day! And 64 days until Easter. 

Snowdrops

Snowdrops are blooming! I saw the first signs yesterday, just the tips of green spears pushing up. I took the photos in this blog this morning. You can see white petals. These flowers are also called Candlemas Bells because they traditionally bloom in time for the Christian feast of Candlemas on February 2. They made it just in time this year. Click to enlarge.

How do they do it? They have strong leaf tips that can push up through frozen soil and snow. They produce proteins that act like biological antifreeze to keep their sap from freezing. They reproduce asexually from bulbs growing underground. Later in the season, their flowers also can be pollinated by insects and produce seeds.

It's nice to have flowers again. Even if I almost froze looking for them. As the poet Charles Algernon Swinburne said, "blossom by blossom, the spring begins."

Sights of the Season

 

It snowed! But that did not keep the witch hazel from blooming. Click to enlarge.

Then it snowed again.

The daffodils carried on, pushing toward spring.

Crocuses are built to withstand it.

Holly actually looks prettier with a shawl of snow and ice.

The snow was beautiful. It's practically all gone.

Yesterday these snowdrops were under a few inches of snow.

The Midpoint of Winter

 

We just passed the midpoint of winter, February 1, which is halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Yay! If we were ancient Celts we would have just celebrated the holiday of Imbolc.

And if we were celebrating Imbolc, we might have checked around to see if any snakes had come out of their burrows to predict the duration of winter weather in accordance with the legend. 

Wait -- we still do that on Groundhog Day, but with groundhogs instead of snakes, right? Turns out that they are equally good at meteorological prognostication. The 2024 groundhog did not see it's shadow. That foretells a smooth path to an early spring. The National Weather Service is predicting the same thing. Let the gardening begin! 

Also, February 2 was Candlemas Day for Christians. The holiday occurs 40 days after Christmas and according to some marks the end of the Christmas season. One of the nice things about Candlemas is that there is a high probability of being able to eat pancakes or tamales.

These winter-blooming snowdrop flowers are also known as Candlemas flowers. They are winter-hardy early bloomers that will push up through snow and frozen ground to appear in time for Candlemas. Mine are always on time. Click to enlarge.

Also note that there are crocuses blooming in my yard right now. Local sunset will be at 5:23 today and 5:24 tomorrow.

So, even though it may have seemed like an uneventful week, it was not.

Snowdrops are Blooming

 

Snowdrops are blooming in my neighborhood again. They are, as usual, the first flowers of the year. Click to enlarge.

It's not easy for a flower to bloom here in January. Snowdrops have strong leaf tips that let them push up through frozen soil and snow. They produce proteins that act like biological antifreeze to keep their sap from freezing.

They usually reproduce asexually from bulbs dividing underground. Too cold for bees? No problem. Although later in snowdrop season I usually do see insects around them.

Snowdrops are also called Candlemas bells for blooming around the time of the Christian feast of Candlemas on February 2nd. This year, again, they are on schedule. We are sure to have more cold weather. But if the snowdrops are here -- can spring be far away?

Snowdrops Are Up!

 

I saw my first snowdrops of the year yesterday. I know it is still far off but here is a sign that spring is coming. Click to enlarge.

Snowdrops are pretty little flowers and well adapted for their role as January bloomers. They produce proteins that act like biological antifreeze to keep their sap from freezing. They have strong leaf tips that let them push up through frozen soil and snow. They usually reproduce asexually from bulbs dividing underground. Too cold for bees? No problem.

"Chaste snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
and pensive monitor of fleeting years!"

 ...from To a Snowdrop by William Wordsworth

Snowdrops

 

Despite that it was just 10 stunningly cold degrees around here this morning, I went out looking for snowdrops -- and I found some! This little droopy patch was all, but I have no doubt that more of the scrappy little rhings will follow. Click to enlarge.

Not just any flower can pop up in mid-January. Snowdrops have special cold-weather adaptations. They produce proteins that act like biological antifreeze to keep their sap from freezing. They have strong leaf tips that let them push up through frozen soil and snow. And they usually reproduce asexually from bulbs dividing underground.                   No bees, no problem.

For me, snowdrops are an incentive for taking chilly walks in January. It's possible to come across a big patch of them, like in the picture above that I took a few years ago in Central Park in New York City. It might be just me but they always make me feel that although it is winter, the seasons are playing out according to plan and spring is not so far away.

Snowdrops!

 

I saw my first snowdrop of the year this week. I know it is still far off, but this is the first sign that spring is coming. Easy to see why the snowdrop is a symbol of hope.

Snowdrops have special adaptations that allow them to bloom in January. They produce proteins that act like biological antifreeze to keep their sap from freezing. They have strong leaf tips that let them push up through frozen soil and snow. They usually reproduce asexually from bulbs dividing underground.

This picture is from a warm day in a previous winter. Bees pollinate snowdrops when they can. Obviously there are not a lot of bees volunteering to do so in January, but enough that sometimes the plants reproduce sexually. Snowdrop seeds have a little ant-attracting substance attached and consequently get carried away and essentially planted by ants that eat the ant reward and leave the seed.

The genus name of snowdrops is Galanthus. From that we get a word for snowdrop enthusiasts like me -- Galantophiles. Click to enlarge.

Here is a famous poem from fellow Galantophile, William Wordsworth:

To A Snowdrop

Lone flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they

But hardier far, once more I see thee bend

Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend, 

Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day, 

Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, waylay

The rising sun, and on the plains descend;

Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend

Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May

Shall soon behold this border thickly set 

With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing

On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;

Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,

Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring, 

And pensive monitor of fleeting years! 

More coming!

Winter Flowers

Snowdrops are blooming! As if on cue, they're in time for Candlemas, a Christian feast that falls on February second. They have long been associated with the holiday, especially in their native Europe, so much so that one of their common names is Candlemas bells.    Click to enlarge.

In one of many folk stories about snowdrops, the spirits of Spring and Winter were fighting because Winter would not release the Earth from her hold. During an ensuing battle, Spring lost a drop of blood from which a snowdrop grew. Spring won. In flower language snowdrops symbolize hope, rebirth, and a promising future.

There are more signs of imminent spring than snowdrops out there. Here are some other spring bulbs reaching up. AND this morning the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil emerged during a snow shower and failed to see his shadow, thus predicting that winter will wrap up soon. This is quite the Sunday: Candlemas, Groundhog's Day, the Superbowl, and the cool palindromic date 02.02.2020.