winter aconites
Jim McKenney (Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:29:44 PST)

When Jim Waddick announced that he had winter aconites in bloom recently, I
really came down with a case of the grumps. How can he in USDA zone 5
already have aconites when there is not a trace of them here in my zone 7
garden?

Two days ago the snow finally cleared on the sites where the winter aconites
grow here. There were plenty of snowdrops in bloom, and even some garden
forms of Crocus tommasinianus, but at first no aconites. Yesterday I took
another look and there they were, little bright yellow globes poking up
through the mulch. The flowers have not opened yet, but they are
nevertheless providing some of the brightest yellow in the garden right not.

I’ll have to check my records: this might be the latest they have appeared
here.

Other than the aconites, things are getting off to a slow start here. There
are about a dozen snowdrop varieties blooming, two or three crocus varieties
(and not many of each so far), winter jasmine, witch hazels, wintersweet,
Helleborus foetidus and the garden hellebores (but the garden hellebores are
still in early bud stage mostly) – really lean pickings for the first week
of March. The local wild Acer rubrum are not quite in bloom – their
flowering marks in earnest the beginning of the allergy season for some
people.

Jim McKenney

jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com

Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone
7

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