Tomorrow promises a few inches of fresh snow, so what better act of defiance is there than to enjoy a few spring flowers today?

‘Gerard Parker’ and ‘Wendy’s Gold’, two of the earliest favorites.

I probably shouldn’t refer to them as spring flowers, it’s still clearly winter when you look at tomorrow’s snowy forecast and last night’s low of 18F (-8C), but I just feel funny calling them winter bloomers.  Winter is definitely not a time for flowers around here.

A nice little bunch of the giant snowdrop (galanthus elwesii) with the first winter aconite opening up behind them.

Even so, the hold winter has on the calendar is starting to loosen and I for one am fine with that.  After snapping these pictures I trimmed a few hellebores and cleaned out the front porch bed so that these new little sprouts could show off to their fullest.  I didn’t get much further than that though.  The whole time I was haunted by little people asking about a baseball game and whether or not I was done yet.  The other snowdrops will have to wait.

Some of last year’s forced snowdrops.  They spent last winter flowering under lights in the garage, now they’re settling in outside.  By next year they should make for a nice show in this spot. 

Something else which I hope is waiting are the cyclamen coum.  They don’t seem as winter-weary as last year but the foliage still looks a little worse for wear.  Last year nearly all the flower buds were lost to the cold and ice, but this year looks a little more promising.  A few have already taken advantage of the four warm days without snow cover and have opened up their first blooms 🙂

Last year every last leaf on this hardy cyclamen coum was a soggy frozen mess.  This year looks a little better and I’m hoping for a nice bright springtime show!

Another first for the year is the snowdrop “John Gray” from Far Reaches Farm out in Washington state.  Last winter I enjoyed this one under lights in the winter garden and it doesn’t seem to have minded the time indoors at all.  This year it’s on Pennsylvania time and is blooming much later of course.

Look, another white snowdrop.  FYI for all those snowdrop snobs out there, it’s galanthus “John Gray”.

The rest of the snowdrops are still laying low.  I’ll try to show restraint in the coming days as they open up but I’m not making any promises.  It’s been a long winter and it’s not just the birds who are singing a springtime song!

Cool weather vegetables are on their way in the winter garden.  The last cyclamen are shoved to the side and the few sad little snowdrops have been kicked to a windowsill to make room.  Even my treasured yellow primroses had to step to the side.

In all honesty the weather is rarely warm enough for the real spring bulbs such as crocus and hyacinths until the last week of March, so even with our February snowpocolypse we really aren’t much off from a normal year.  Still I would have been fine with an early spring, and I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing for even more sun and warmth!