Early
to Rise
I prefer flowers
that bloom in early spring. Not for any emotional reasons, but
for reason reasons. The convoluted explanation follows:
You don't have to
talk me out of winter. I'm way ahead of you. It wasn't in my plans to
shiver in the cold, but life turned that way. Strangely, some people,
somewhere, enjoy it.
I spent some time
in Wisconsin, wearing everything I owned, all at once. Before
visiting that state, my guess was that everyone must be saving for a
move. Strangely, they loved winter. Ice skating, hockey,
skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, snowball fights, igloos. OK,
nobody suggested igloos, but I may not have interviewed enough
people. Of course, this is the result of self-selection, as those
with “thinner blood” had migrated south.
I'm sure that
everyone in Seattle loves coffee, to get through the dark, drizzly
days, and beer to get through the dark, drizzly nights. A guess? No,
I said I was sure. Sun lovers escaped to California (a true
fact, as told to me by a Californian visiting Oregon at the same time
I was. Too plausible to doubt.)
My wife and I met
in New England, but the cold, dark winters drove us south to the
Mid-Atlantic states. A good idea, but we missed by a few hundred
miles, as the winters here are still too long, too cold (and too
dark) for us. Too late, now.
 |
| Some of my earliest azaleas |
The above explains
why I've developed a preference for early blooming plants. After
suffering through the grays, browns and whites of winter, any
other color is in demand. Winter Jasmine's tiny yellow flowers would
be ignored at greener times than late winter. Crocus' are an early
treat, with yellows and purples. They overlap with the latest snows
and the earliest azaleas. Hellebores, whose flowers are barely there,
are still appreciated.
Once again, any
color will do, but there are more whites, pinks and orangy-reds among
the early azaleas than are found later in the year. Not my favorite
colors, but at that time of year I'll take them. Daffodils fill the
bill as bright additions. Blue-and-white Speedwell covers the ground.
Iris' add complex purple flowers to the mix.
Early flowers have
other good attributes: they grow in cool conditions, so they last
longer. The ground is well saturated from the winter snow melt, so
they don't dry out quickly. Fungus, such as petal blight, comes in
mid-May, so early azalea flowers don't suffer from that malady.
As the season
progresses, the weather warms and dries, providing fewer blooms.
Early summer daylilies will demand favoritism. Late summer milkweed
will claim butterflies to grab attention, but in autumn I'm already
looking forward to the end of the next winter, and those
colors impossibly popping from the cold, wet earth.
