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."

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

 

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.