The Bulbs are Popping

It is still winter here but there are signs of the coming change of seasons. The transition from winter to spring is great although the problem is that the signs start coming long before we are safely out out of winter. We’ve had long cold stretches in March in years past. Not January cold but still colder than you’d like. In some ways, a March cold snap is worse than one in January because you expect it to be cold in January but, by March, I’m looking forward to spring.

Spring is when life awakens and color comes back to the world. Summer is mainly green. Winter is black, white and grey. Fall has its colors but they tend to be the warm ones – reds, yellows and oranges. Spring is the rainbow. 

We have planted many daffodils around the house and there are several that are sending their first leaves out of the ground. Still several weeks before any flowers but it is a sign that the flowers are coming. We’ve got bulbs that go back 30 years and have followed us through two moves. I’ll freely admit that I would prefer tulips or hyacinths but the squirrels seem to prefer those as well so we stick with the daffodils. But they will soon paint parts of the yard with bright yellow flowers and any flowers are better than no flowers.

There is some action starting with the lillies of the valley. They are special in another way. One time when we visited my parent, my Mom dug up some from their yard and gave them to us after we mentioned how many they had. From a small beginning, they have claimed a spot in our yard and are now a reminder of my Mom who is no longer with us. We have a pair of flowering almonds that were an anniversary gift from them one year that also are a living reminder.

The bulbs are kind of amazing to me. Year after year, they sit dormant over the winter enduring the cold and snow and ice. Then, when conditions become favorable, they send out new flowers. The flowers don’t last long and the leaves that come with the flowers wither before summer so you can forget they are there but, every spring, they come back. We have other perennials that do the same but they are more substantial plants. These are just tiny bulbs that continue to bring forth new life every spring.

We are still in winter and, as winters go, this one hasn’t been bad. Still, I’m not sorry to see nature starting to send it on its way and bring forth spring.