Ephemerals

I happened to glance out my second story window and a few tiny hot pink dots caught my eye.

Under a flowering crab apple tree, struggling to push through dead hosta leaves, were some tiny beautiful cyclamens, supported by spindly, crooked stems. The leaves are beautiful too - heart-shaped and drizzled with silver.

These hardy cyclamen are considered ephemerals - flowering plants that last just a very short time. They are woodland plants that need to go through their life cycle: making leaves and flowers and seeds in the short few weeks of full sun before the trees above leaf out and cast the area in shade. Cyclamen don't last more than a few years in my garden, but I keep buying new ones for the jolt of beauty they provide.

Purple iris reticulata and snow drops will show their flowers for just a short time before disappearing for another year. Just a few inches tall, they both bloom while there is still snow on the ground, and sometimes under the snow in stubborn winters.

This yellow iris is another ephemeral. It blooms for a few short weeks, attracting early bees and flies, then disappears. Long grass-like leaves come later.

bird standoff

Since I started offering the birds home-made suet, it's been disappearing at the rate of one block every two days! The suet is a delicious mixture of bacon fat, meat fat, peanut butter, lard, sunflower seeds, corn meal, whole-grain flour, raisins, and whatever else I can think of. I love attracting every type of bird except the grackle (right) because they chase the other birds away, and if I'm honest, because they aren't nearly as pretty as a blue jay or a woodpecker.

This second picture is a starling, looking to muscle in on the suet supply. Contrary to what these pictures show, from my observations it's usually the starlings and grackles that win the intimidation game, and the bluejays and the other pretty birds are the ones scared off.

Yes, it's April 3, and yes, that is new snow you see in the background. It's been snowing for the past three days, about 15 cm in total, and we are back to a white world again. More snow is promised in a few days. Not sure spring is coming this year.