Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to tell you about things that never happen, and to show some snowdrop pictures. You may remember me from such posts as “Mostly Iceless”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It’s certainly not as dry as it looks, and the “north border” isn’t as empty as it looks right now.
You can see that upturned nursery pot and section of rabbit fence, which have since been put back onto the patio; those made a sort of roof over the snowdrops planted in pots, and then some “frost fleece” was draped over the rabbit fence, when the cold weather was predicted a few weeks ago.
The weather forecast at the time was for cold weather to come in before it snowed. That never happens here, but it did that time, and now the soil is frozen, so things are delayed again.
The guy I live with said he didn’t care all that much, but he was weirded out by cold weather with no snow.
It’s also not as dry as it looks, out in the field.
The ground is really soggy.
Still, even though things are happening that never happen here, there are snowdrops in flower.
This one (there are actually a few bulbs here) came from one of the “bulk” purchases (you buy a whole bunch for not very much money). These “bulk” snowdrops have a reputation for not being very long-lived in the garden, and in fact these are the only ones left from the first purchase he made. I made a post on that: “One Hundred Snowdrops”.
He said he’s not going to do that again, though I guess some gardeners have more success with these.
And, for that matter, he’s not planning on spending money on “special” snowdrops, even though he says that’s a popular pastime with people who are fascinated by snowdrops.
He told me I would not believe the amount of money people spend on a single snowdrop bulb. But then I guess people spend even more on certain houseplants.
One that is special is Galanthus elwesii ‘Theresa Stone’, which I’ve talked about before. We expect to see these in flower any time after the new year, but since the soil is frozen it’s going to take them a longer time to flower, even though it was 65 degrees F (18.3C) yesterday.
These were a gift, and planted in the shade garden twenty-three years ago. There are now a lot of them. More than a lot; hundreds if not thousands.
I don’t know what this one is. It’s an elwesii, for sure, though there are other species planted in the shade garden. 
If there were more sun in this garden things might be different. But you can see that, right here anyway, the soil isn’t frozen; the leaves of Cyclamen hederifolium clearly show that.
The guy I live with posted a picture of this one on Facebook and said it was a seedling, but it turns out that this is really one called ‘Daphne’s Scissors’.
You can almost see the scissors pattern on the inner segments.
What happened here is that the guy I live with dug up some bulbs for sharing, and replanted the remaining bulbs here, and then forgot he did that.
The year after he got this it flowered in late December. Not any more.
There aren’t any crocuses or irises in flower now. The guy I live with said that there normally would be, but things have changed.
The last time the guy I live with saw a fox here, walking at night with his wife, was about thirty years ago. And now I’ve seen them several times. I wanted to go meet one, on an evening walk, but the guy I live with said no. I guess they’re not all that friendly.
And then there was a fox in my front yard at three in the morning today. I felt compelled to do a lot of barking, even though the guy I live with wanted to sleep.
The guy I live with said that’s never happened before. Coyotes have come into the front yard, but never foxes.
I’m not sure if this has happened before, but I kind of don’t think so.
There was a mouse in the bird feeder.
The guy I live with had to refill the feeder anyway, and when he set it down on the ground, the tiny mouse ran away.
Another unusual thing happened today, and I know this has never happened since I’ve been here.
We listened to some very different music.
I liked it. It went very well with all the gardening we did today, though it wasn’t really loud enough to hear when we were out in the “way back”.
I got a lecture on the music, of course. The guy I live with said that Chick Webb, the drummer who led the band, had a nineteen-year-old female singer, and the band’s manager said Webb should get another singer because the one who sang with the band wasn’t “attractive enough”, and Webb, who obviously knew good singing when he heard it, told the manager…well, I can’t say what he said. I might blush.
The young singer’s name was Ella Fitzgerald.
The guy I live with told me that when he was writing the books, especially “High and Dry” he would listen to music like this on his computer, and he hesitated in playing this, like it would be dragging up the past and make him very unhappy, but it turned out to be okay today.
The last thing that never happens here, at least for now, is rain in the winter. It always snows instead of rains. The guy I live with said that when gardening books talk about “winter wet” they’re describing something totally alien to him.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me experiencing something that never happens, on my evening walk in the rain, just today.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
With all these images coming from Mars, I am getting the impression that Mars is actually in Colorado. It is cold and dry. (Actually, when I was a little kid, and images from Mars were coming from the Viking Mission, I believed that, because Mars was so red, that it must be in Oklahoma.)
Snowdrops really do seem to be an obsession with some. I realize that I do not get it because there is no rush for such early flowers within a climate with such mild winters; but even if I did get it, SO many of the special cultivars do not seem to be special enough. I mean, there really is not much variation with a flower that blooms only white. I want to grow them eventually, but will likely get only one simple cultivar.
A lot of the cultivars do look alike, but the guy I live with said that except for Galanthus lagodechianus and G. rizehensis, which differ by chromosom counts, the genus Galanthus is one of the very few in which all the species are readily distinguishable without using a magnifying glass.
The very strange thing is how adaptable the species are to climates utterly alien to them.
For now, I will be satisfied with snowflake, which we know locally as snowdrop. If I eventually get snowdrop, I hope that it is not a cultivar, but one of the simpler species. I can not remember its name, but the guy you live with grows it.
The guy I live with says that snowflakes are Leucojum aestivum; related to snowdrops but they flower later, and need wetter soil than we could ever possibly provide.
I know that’s being nitpicky.
Oh, it is not really nitpicky. It is accurate. I grow snowflake (which I know as snowdrop) only because a few feral bulbs appeared where I had access to them. Once established, they naturalize without becoming too invasive. I like the white bloom. They seem to bloom randomly, and started blooming a while ago this year. I have never met a real snowdrop. I only see pictures of them online. I tend to avoid fads, but I do like snowdrops in pictures. The guy you live with grows some of the simpler or more traditional varieties or species, instead of the weirdly fancy and overly bred sort. If I ever try snowdrops, that is the sort that I would prefer, a simple species.
The guy I live with does prefer the species, and there are some really weird-looking snowdrops out there, which some people like.
The best ones are the ones that spread everywhere.
I hope that ground thaws. I count on your friend to show those snowdrops and show them early since here frozen ground+snow slows them down even more, although not so much the last two years. Last year I guess we could have joined in on the ‘never happens here’, but then it happened and now it happened again, so today I hope to see some flowers open in the sun.
Although it’s still winter wet, I can’t yet imagine a dry winter, that never happens here.
The frozen soil is very strange, since there has always been snow on the ground when it gets super cold, but not this year.
It rained here all night last night, which is unheard of, and now it’s snowing.
It will be almost 60F next week and then rain and snow again.
But the guy I live with isn’t complaining. I’m not sure why. He usually complains constantly.
The hundreds or thousands of snowdrops in your garden must be a vision, Mani. Enjoy the rain today!
The snowdrops are usually at their best in early March. Sometimes earlier, but rarely later. The guy I live with says these are winter flowers, like crocuses and cyclamen, even though people call them spring flowers.
The rain in the metro area is truly weird…especially in January. The dogs are not fans since the sound of raindrops on hard surfaces is amplified in ears that hang down. Then again my own too seem to be adverse to just getting wet. Still, the moisture is most welcome in winter’s driest month. I have hyacinths about 2 inches above ground and actually saw a daffodil bud ready to bloom at a neighbor’s this week. Totally weird.
The guy I live with said that crocuses in January is a lot more typical sight than rain, but the rain was very nice indeed.
He used to get into arguments with people about “winter watering” here, which he says is beyond silly (like you don’t see trees dying all over the metro area because no one waters them), but that people can do whatever they want.
Too much rain would not be good for some of the plants here, though. Agaves and some bulbs.
So many snowdrops must be a lovely sight, Mani! I only have a few and hope they multiply.
The rain in Denver today is so welcome. We have 0.40 as of 7 a.m. in the southeast part of town. Our dog doesn’t mind it, but then again, her first eight weeks of life were in Oregon, so she probably wonders what all the fuss is about. Enjoy this while you can.
I thought walking in the rain last night was pretty fun. I do like snow better, though.
In southern Colorado they predicted thunderstorms–in February–and I don’t like those at all.
The guy I live with said that snowdrop seeds are dispersed by ants. It’s now common for people to write about myrmecochory, seed dispersal by ants, but gardeners who grow snowdrops, cyclamen, and bulbous irises have known about that for a long time.
“The young singer’s name was Ella Fitzgerald.”
There is a wonderful new biography: Becoming Ella Fitzgerald by Judith Tick
The guy I live with said that CD set is now out of print, which is a pity, because the sound is astonishingly good for being recorded in 1936. A lot better than the “hard-panned” recordings of the 1960s, say.
The snowdrops are so cheery!
They really are, even though they’re going to get covered with snow today.
Another genus that I find hard to establish is Eranthis. I’ve planted them in bulk, along with Galanthus, and don’t get nearly the numbers I expect. However, the ones that do survive are slowly beginning to seed around. Hopefully, the offspring are better adapted than the parents.
I didn’t know that purebred border collies blushed. That was the best thing I learned today.
Lots of unusual things today!
Mee-yow Mani an Gut our weather iss alot like yores now it seemss. Allmost all snow iss melted. It iss still cold an ground frozen. No flowerss heer. Yore Snowdropss are so purrty.
An Mani yore look hansum purr usual.
Say That Mistur Chick makess guud mewsick. An to think hee picked Miss Ella to bee THE singer! Clevurr Mistur Chick!
Wishin you both a guud week there. An sum more flowerss two…..
~~~head rubss~~~BelalDharma~~~ an 🙂 BellaSita Mum
That’s a really nice pine in the first photo. Having something flowering right now is a bonus. Our golden willows have exploded into pussy willows and I have one hellebore that has flowers. Does the heart good. We have fox here and sometimes when they bark it sounds more like a horrible scream. Rather unnerving in the middle of the night. After several beautiful warm days it is raining here today too but turning to snow tonight. Can’t remember when it last rained in Feb. Chick Web is great and he certainly was a good judge of talent.
The pine is a dwarf ponderosa from the late Allan Taylor.
It was kind of scary to hear the fox right in our front yard, but interesting, too.
And it rained all night here last night, and then snowed.