Snow Day!
It was midterms this week at the Community College I teach at. The whole week the forecast showed that a chance of snow and ice was coming, and I was thinking back to my childhood when a good snowstorm in the valley meant a day off from school. We used to get up at the crack of dawn to watch the scrolling bar on the local news channel with the eager hopes of seeing Cascade Union High School District Closed. The snow did not show up in time to save the students from the midterm exams, but it did arrive as a prelude to Valentines day. A few inches out and it’s still coming down now.
Yesterday as I was making preparations for the coming storm I took a bit of time to wall through the greenhouse and take a few photo’s of the early blooming bulbs and even a few treats in the alpine house as the Collomia and a few Draba are starting into bloom now despite the night time lows that saw temps down into the teens this week. The lovely early Crocus with those wonderful striped feathering are coming along well. I have always wondered about the evolutionary adaptations of those markings. Most seem to think it’s a signal to pollinators where the contrast provides a bright signal, but I find it odd that they have those markings on the outside and they are only visible on the cool cloudy days when the flowers would be closed up anyway. I like to think of them as little camouflage patterns likely keeping them safe from grazing ungulates in the high mountains meadows. My favorite is Crocus orpheus with its super cool dark purple to black zebra stripes on a white background.
A few snow drops are open now, and a new one for me blooming this year that was a gift from Claire Cockroft, Galanthus ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’ named for the the talented botanical artist whose husband was the british governor at Madras (now called Chennai), and in the 1930’s she spent the time of his deployment exploring the Nilgiri Hills for wildflowers to draw. Her collection of prized flower bulbs have been curated for over a century at the Hodsock Priory, the 800 acre estate in Nottinghamshire and gardens where the Galanthus that bloom in February are said to make a stunning show. Check out the gallery for a brief bit of color as we enjoy a winter storm, fingers crossed the forecasted ice storm doesn’t knock the power out again like it did on the epic Valentines day storm of 2021 where I was out of power for very cold 10 days.
I can tell the yearning for spring is strong now. I’m getting a lot of requests about nursery visits and plant availability and I really appreciate the enthusiasm. But as the weather shows it is still winter here and I have to get finished with the winter term teaching before diving into the business of spring and the shipping season.
In about a month I will be at Plant Nerd Night, the legendary event hosted by Portland gardening expert Mike Darcy, I will give a brief talk on some great plants that will be available this upcoming season and will have a sales table of some awesome early blooming rock garden plants, dwarf iris, rare bulbs and some fantastic plants for troughs, crevice gardens and sunny dry spots. Click here for more details on this event: https://hpso.memberclicks.net/plant-nerd-night
Winter is still here, and I promise the plants and sunshine will be along soon. In the meantime please support our Canadian friends and neighbors, the Wrightmans Catalog is up for ordering and they have some amazing plants!
Watching the snow pile up and sending warm wishes and hope.
Mark