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Group Writing: Snow in April
We’ve grown in some ways sadly unused to snow in April in my little corner of England, but in the recent cold spell, there’ve been moments here and there when the sky has let loose a little fluttering of snowflakes just to remind us it could, if it wanted to. So there.
It reminds me to be cautious for the time being in my ongoing program of feeding and encouraging the budding plants in my garden at home, not to set too much young growth going to be nipped by a sudden frost. So I redirect my energies (as do the plants) in biding out my time, and thinking what I can do undercover to prepare for the dawning spring.
In boxes somewhere, I’ve got seed potatoes and dahlia tubers who I’m sure would be glad of some attention. A tin box somewhere else holds seeds crying out to be sown in pots under glass – marigolds and helichrysums (or strawflowers – glorious annual flowers that resemble nothing so much as living jewels on tall green stems – and that deserve to be much better known), heleniums (or Sneezeweed, so I’m informed in some places) and Michaelmas daisies – promising peace and colour in the glow of summer.
How fare the seasons where you are? Is your garden underway? (Even in pots indoors – I need to find another Begonia rex, to complement the kalanchoes on the kitchen windowsill.) What do April showers portend in your own neck of the woods?
Published in Group Writing
I don’t go outside, so I have no idea what’s happening out there.
Very sensible. You never know, after all, just what kind of adventures one can end up getting swept off into. I tell you, it’s the last time I listen to a wizard who shows up and wishes me good morning. Well, almost the last time …
Your words are as lovely as the photos, Andrew. Just a beautiful way to begin my day. Thanks.
Oh, thank you very much. That’s a very nice thing to return to. And my pleasure.
Well, it’s 82 here today. We had snow less than a week ago, two days after another spell in the high 70s. It’s an impossible time of the year for gardening–dangerously unreliable for the plants, and very hard on the sinuses.
Still, I’ve got some seeds going, and some pots out with violas and pansies. Some roses and hellebores on order. But mostly I’m tidying up and mulching at the moment. Less fraught with anxiety about what will happen to my in-ground plants, and less to-ing and fro-ing with the pots, in and out, as the weather bounces from tropical to arctic.
The spring bulbs this year have been lovely, though. Spectacular crocuses, and daffodils, and the grape hyacinths are spreading nicely. Today, my first tulips opened. The winter aconite I planted two years ago has finally decided to assert itself, and showed up in a few spots, and I even had three (count ’em, three!) little snowdrops. I love the snowdrops so much, but they don’t grow well here.
82 in PA?? Warmer than Florida!
That sounds heavenly – crocuses, fragrant grape hyacinths, and daffodils – I’m in Fl but grew up in Pgh and none grow well here – I’ve tried. Even though I am in NW FL where it does get “chilly”, I did have daffodils one year. I miss these little snippets of spring emerging from the snow – along with the bright yellow forsythia and the lovely pussy willow. I almost bought a bunch – for sale in the grocery stores here, but contented myself to 2 pots of fragrant hyacinths for Easter – one purple – the other yellow. Still in bloom and fragrant. I also miss my absolute favorite of all time – the lilac!!
I’ll post some pics of my garden later – :-)
I am hoping for my FIRST lilac blooms this year. I planted one in the fall of 2019, and had high hopes last Spring, but my fence let me down, the lambs got out, and they had an absolute feast on my roses and lilacs. It really messed up my garden for the year.
So far this year, fingers crossed, I’m winning….
Continental climates are extremists. I think the FBI will be monitoring.
As I recall, from back in the distant past, a blanket of snow would insulate the buds and new green growth, whilst a frost/hard freeze was to be guarded against with whatever we could put over the green stuff. These days, I just worry about forgetting to water as the temperature swings but the air stays desert dry.
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Look forward to it. I do like forsythia. I really need to plant more bulbs here — something else besides the bluebells that run rampant unless checked a little. Some tulips and some daffs and maybe some crocuses and things. There’s a little ipheion (or “starflower”) that pops up in the cracks by a path every year. I keep thinking when it almost (seemingly inevitably) gets stepped on in some way, oh, what a shame, that’s it then. And up it comes, year after year. I really must plant some more of those (we used to have more, but I think the bluebells overwhelmed them in the end, possibly?).