Snowdrops and Snowflakes

February 2, 2004 - The snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) is a much looked forward to harbinger of spring in eastern climes that comes much later than their west coast cousins in Vancouver. Most years, by early January a snowdrop or two is already drooping its modest head in front of the Park Board Administration Office in Stanley Park.

This year, small scenic vignettes are taking us by surprise. We are only slowly awakening from dark days of hibernation but as each morning dawns brighter our collective hearts quicken a little more, beat by beat, snowdrop by snowdrop.

Take for instance the usually most unassuming embankment near the South Lagoon Drive entrance to Stanley Park proper, just past the Park's daycare centre. Ignored by all who pass 48 weeks of the year, it is now, and for the next three weeks weather permitting, a blanket of snowdrops. Some wise gardener (actually Alleyne Cook, now retired, who received the first clump from avid Vancouver gardener Ellen Haley in the late 1960s) many autumns ago, no doubt, envisioned this loveliness in his mind's eye as the ancestors of these marble-sized orbs were gentled into the turf there. It is a shaded place, making the white and lime green quilt later to arrive and longer in staying. Snowdrops, if left undisturbed, will seed themselves around so if you're not too tidy, your neglectful ways will be rewarded sooner. They can be lifted and divided straight away after flowering to successfully colonize another neighbourhood which is in want of an early blooming army.

Here is a quote from one gardener's daily journal:

"Last week I dug up a clump of Galanthus from a dear friend's garden; just large enough to fill a small terra cotta pot which served as a modest centre piece for my dinner table. Diminutive and delicate, it virtually gleamed under the influence of golden candle light while revealing close-up the intricacies of its countenance. Yesterday I tipped it from its container and replanted it in its new garden home."

Enjoy all Park Board snowdrops throughout the city, wherever you find them, and hopefully before a sudden and unpredicted snow storm!

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