Early to Rise

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.