If You Had Valentine's Weekend ...

... in your "When Will The First Flowers Bloom" pool, then you are a winner!

Galanthus nivalis, aka Snowdrops, are now blooming our yard.

A species native to Europe and Western Asia, introduced via garden trade to the Eastern US. Which is the route they took to our yard. One of the first flowers to bloom (duh!) they will even push through snow. Not that we're gonna get any snow around here (temps in the 50's F this weekend).

Last spring we visited Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve, and Patty again dreamed of having a variety of spring ephemerals in our yard and gardens. Something she had repeatedly put off, because of the deer.

But now we have a deer fence. And a hundred or so bulbs later, we've got flowers.

These flowers have naturalized in our area. They are poisonous to humans and, perhaps more importantly, deer (and other mammals), and thus are not treated as food by the local fauna. Although that means, like many introduced species, they contribute little to the local food web.

The good news is that most of those hundred or so bulbs are native. And as long was we have 70% or more native species in our yard, the local food web will be a healthy one. And we are safely above that limit.

So we are all winners.