Buried For Bloom Day

High in the southern Alps the enduring cold retards melting and easy movement. I was able to leave the freshly shoveled long gravel driveway in the truck during the soft snow of mid day and to walk a delivery down to the cozy cabin and head off to town. Coming back after a rescheduled visit to the young strong chiropractor, I was not able to drive back in on the freshly shoveled long gravel driveway. The long shadows of mountains and high clouds of the next winter wave had frozen the unmelted snow in to layers of ice. There is nothing worse to drive in snow and ice than a light weight pickup. So I stopped driving it only a short way in from the road.

This won't be much of a Bloom Day.

It wasn't so long ago that the Sheffie Mums were at their peak. Now they are dried husks fortunate to have their heads above the snow.

The Northern Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium remain perky despite their location on an exposed ridge recently subjected to blizzard force winds. That location is probably what saved them from being buried while dormant.

I didn't get far in the search for bloom substitutes. The snow was too deep. The air was too cold. The real standouts in the entrance of the garden to be were the Yucca filamentosa with their colorful spiky foliage poking out through a blanket of white and surrounded by the tawny browns of past exuberance and the somber gray of the cold creaking forest.

It's a big planet out there. Just because the high southern Alpalachians are resting does not mean there are no blooms to be had. Visit Bloom Day headquarters in the balmy climate of Indianapolis where driveways are melted and dry as a bone to see blooms from around the garden blogosphere.