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The January thaw of last week provided me with an opportunity to “check under the hood”–or, in this case, under the snow cover. It’s always thought provoking, prompting me to think about how different plants respond to this cold season.

I saw this snapdragon last time we had a thaw. It was in better shape then

This snapdragon looked perkier the last time I saw it. I don’t think it will make it till spring.

This foxglove was a seedling last year

Here’s the biggest of several foxglove rosettes that I saw in various places. Sometimes they can look great all winter, but turn brown sometime before May, when I find their dried up remains. I don’t know why. Do you? I wonder if I should be mulching them.

Some colchicums get an early start

It must be spring in the Mediterranean. That’s where a lot of colchicums originally come from (roughly speaking). And they still haven’t figured out that spring comes much, much later here. Not all my colchicums send up such precocious greenery, but many different ones do. I suspect they all share a common ancestor, and I always wonder what it is that triggers their emergence. The tips of the leaves turn brown, but the rest of the foliage looks fine and they bloom right on schedule–in autumn.

S. Arnott snowdrops

These are my furthest along snowdrops, but they aren’t nearly as far along as those of Mr. McGregor’s Daughter. She lives near Chicago. As best as I can tell, she’s had colder temperatures and more snow than I have. I thought ‘S. Arnott’ was a selection of Galanthus elwesii, one of the earliest snowdrops, but perhaps I am mistaken in that.

Lunar Glow bergenia

This ‘Lunar Glow’ bergenia has got to be the most colorful plant I saw on my little garden walk. Do all bergenias color up so nicely in the winter? This is the only one I have, a trial plant from Terra Nova Nurseries. I need to plant more of them where they can be viewed from the house.