Finding Ulysses

After a late retribution by winter in response to the springlike conditions of January, March is almost over, and baby, is it ever going out like a lamb.

I just returned from a business trip to Tampa, Florida – and I can honestly say that our weather here is better. In March, the sunlight in Florida is already so glaring that it washes out the colors. It’s not that much warmer there either – in the 50s and 60s during my couple of days visiting.

I found these crocuses in my back yard this morning, planted by previous resident Harriet McConnell years ago. Thanks, Harriet. They’re a smaller, more delicate, form of crocus than what we see more often in people’s yards. It takes a considerate eye to plant something uncommon.

There’s a particular horticultural identity to Trumansburg, with certain varieties of plants shared from neighbor to neighbor over the years, with others left out. Small, early snowdrops, for example, are prolific. The larger, later version has been, as far as I can tell, absent from our village.

I planted some of these larger snowdrops last autumn, in a new perennial bed where some asparagus plants had been shaded out and nibbled down to wispy versions of their former selves. In another couple years, the large snowdrop bulbs will be ready to divide, and I imagine that I’ll share some of those with neighbors.