My snowdrops are blooming (although they soon may be covered up by today’s snow event)! It’s a great sign of spring!
I can’t see them from my window, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover them when I was filling the bird feeders the other day.
I keep track of when the flowers first appear every year, and this is the earliest I’ve ever seen them. They beat the old blooming record by 10 days.
I grow Galanthus elwesii, or Giant Snowdrops. They were bred/discovered almost 150 years ago, and are originally from Greece. They are hardy in Zones 3-8 and grow about 8 inches tall. You can plant Giant Snowdrops in the fall and they will bloom starting in late winter. Best of all, rodents have no interest in them, and they’ll come back year after year.
Does their early appearance guarantee we’ll have an early spring? Of course not. We’ve had a couple of weeks of mild weather and the snow was disappearing so they had room to grow. But we can still hope it’s a sign!
I also saw some daffodils peeking out of the soil, but they may want to slow down because they aren’t as hardy as the snowdrops. They’ll still bloom in spring if it gets really cold again or they get buried in snow, but their leaves may get burned by the freezing temperatures in the meantime.
