Sunday, January 15, 2012

Trudging Through Another Bloom Day

It was falling fast and piling up quick for a while there last night, but the morning revealed it was just another meager inch of snow. By the time I felt prepared to trudge off in search of blooms for Bloom Day it was already half gone, melted on a sunny day.



Could there possibly be anything blooming out there in all this snow and cold?



It is way to soon for the daffodils and the Bulbapaloozathon. There are the usual early birds sending up a little foliage to check things out, but the bulk of the 10,000 daffodils and an equal number of minor bulbs are still buried in waiting underground.



One Helleborus has buds. Unopened it can't count for a official Bloom Day bloom.



Yes there is something blooming out there in all this snow and cold and here they are, the brave little Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, poking up through the snow. They're not quite fully open, but I am calling this an official bloom, high on the low spot of a North Carolina mountain top for January's Bloom Day. This may be all you get in February too.



Looking back at Bloom Days past it seems December is now the only totally bloomless month on the mountain top. Eleven months of coverage is pretty good for an iffy zone 6 at 4000 feet. But I could do better. Now what could be planted to fill that tiny remaining gap?

At International Bloom Day Headquarters there is never a bloom gap. The whole blooming planet is there for us to marvel over.

5 comments:

HolleyGarden said...

Yea for snowdrops! They look pretty in the snow, too. February is usually the month I am iffy on blooms. It's been so warm, I'm hoping this year I'll have something then.

Lola said...

Yea for the Snowdrops. Yours look different than mine which aren't blooming yet.
Another cold night here. Need to plant more lettuce, beets anything that grows underground. Above ground too. I have transplants that need potting.
Stay warm.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I love 'em snowdrops. They rarely let us down for the winter GBBD. Happy DAy.

Anonymous said...

It is a strange winter. I usually have summer snowflakes all over the place in bloom. Not a one is blooming but I have daffodils in bloom. Also, the ones blooming are not supposed to be the small ones, but the stalks are only about 3 inches tall with blooms. Sallysmom

Lea's Menagerie said...

Of course, buds count! They are blooms that are just asleep, aren't they? Soon they will wake up, yawn and stretch, and smile at the sun coming from behind the clouds.
Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!
Lea