On Gardeners’ Question Time this weekend (a programme on BBC Radio 4) I heard the question, “Are Snowdrops the last flower of Winter or the first flower of Spring?”.
And so I got to thinking.
I have always thought of Snowdrops as marking the beginning of the year, floristically speaking, but now I wonder. Their very whiteness makes me think of Winter: and looking round my own garden I think perhaps that Winter Aconites feel like the first flower of Spring to me, despite their name.
It is the colours of course. White = Winter: Yellow = Spring.
But their name belies their season. Winter Aconite seems all wrong. But then so does Winter Jasmine: that is yellow too.
And ours has been flowering all Winter without cease.
So I am stymied.
Any thoughts?
Sweff, I think the Aconite are the first flowers of Spring followed by the Snowdrops, its all a matter of personal opinion, but thats how it appears to me.
In our garden the aconites always come out a couple of weeks later than the snowdrops!
It is wonderful flowers! Announces spring.
Yes indeed, that hope for better weather and the pleasure of spring for all creatures!
My immediate response was that there aren’t winter flowers. There are late autumn flowers and there are early spring flowers. I definitely think of snowdrops as the first spring flower though.
Interesting, I had never thought of that. More rumination on my part then while I frantically try to think whether there are any winter flowers:)