Spring in Bud

Forsythia

Spring has taken its time arriving this year. There was a significant snowfall here on Easter weekend and yesterday I had to scrape ice and snow from my car before leaving the house in the mid-morning. It continued to snow off and on all day under grey, cold skies with a cold east wind. Some years April brings a sudden warm spell that catapults flowers and trees into bud and bloom within a few days.  Our forsythia bush just started blooming on April 26, our 47th wedding anniversary and daffodils have opened up around the neighbourhood.

I love walking in the woods in early spring before the trees come into leaf. There is a definite order to the opening of spring ephemerals;- Bloodroot, Trout Lilies, Spring Beauties, Wild Ginger, Hepatica, Trilliums, with May Apples, Dutchmen's Britches, and Jack-in-the-Pulpit blooming a little later.

Plenty of buds but few open flowers

I found everything I was looking for in the bush except for Hepatica and Jack-in-the-Pulpit. The flowers were all in bud awaiting a warm day when their petals will open to welcome crawling and flying pollinators.

Wild Ginger and Bloodroot in bloom

In a protected gully I saw one wild ginger flower blooming at the base of the plant's leaf stems. These unusual flowers are often covered with leaf litter and are not readily visible. Most of the Bloodroot flowers, one of the first ephemerals to bloom, were protected by their large leaves but one was partially open in the chilly afternoon air. The large colonies of these plants found in the few woodlots that remain in the city are likely hundreds of years old. 

There is no better place to walk on a cold, windy day than the woods. The trees offer a wind break and rain puddles are rare as the ground absorbs water readily. Trees are important in moderating temperatures, cleaning the air and releasing moisture from the ground into the atmosphere. Our paved and cemented cities hold the heat in the summer and increase our susceptibility to drought. I watch sadly as our city grows on all sides with more roads, houses and  industries and fewer mature stands of trees. We have lived in our neighbourhood for over forty years and the seedlings that were planted in the 1970s are not full grown yet. 

I can hope for many more seasons of spring buds in woodlands like this.