White Start to a New Gardening Year

After a month visiting family in Australia and fleeing ahead of Cyclone Gabrielle in New Zealand, we arrived home in late February to find the first flowers of 2023 already blooming.

Snow crocus in the shelter of the house were basking in a little sunshine among the green fronds of Sedum 'Angelina'.

The earliest snowdrops were also in bloom. It surprises me that of the kinds I have, the double varieties are always first. 

Narcissus 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' was living up to its name as well. It always blooms with the snowdrops and crocus, at least a month ahead of any other daffodil I know. 

It's tough in other ways too, as it proved when, a few days later, the weather suddenly changed and Vancouver had more snow than we normally see at this time of year.

Overnight all my bright blooms were gone, flattened under this heavy blanket.

    But wait, what's this?

Yes, it's that determined daffodil, shouldering its way out of a drift, setting an example for other sturdy plants.

A stem of Hellebore 'Penny's Pink', only just in bud but clearly another strong-stemmed harbinger of spring, was also heaving itself upright. Behind it, where the tree canopy had taken most of the load, a clump of snowdrops was breaking through. 

As March begins, more ground is becoming visible and, while a few flowers like Crocus 'Gipsy Girl have suffered, ... 

they and most others have rebounded with little obvious damage.

I'm particularly pleased that this snowdrop is not only thriving but multiplying. It's a rare variety called 'Rosemary Burnham' named for the Vancouver gardener in whose garden it first appeared.