Backdoor view on Jan 21

Well, I got up this morning all set to celebrate a month since the winter solstice.  And this is what greeted me at the backdoor.  Since the inertia of the earth’s temperature makes it tough for the sun to heat things up even though the day’s have been getting longer since December 21, eventually things catch up and it begins to get warmer each day.  Actually it turns out that the minimum for cold temperatures is January 15th for our area, so I’m ready to start recording signs of Springtime.  Instead we had near freezing temperatures and several inches of snow.

Sidewalk crew

So I went into the greenhouse where I was pleased to note that several signs of Springtime were evident.  I can see growing buds on a hypericum, a freesia, a tulbaghia, a babiana, and oxalis compressa.  In addition the Oxalis cathara shared another beautiful snow-white flower (to match the outside weather I guess).

Oxalis cathara

And I found a number of Narcissus pots starting to flower up.

Narcissus romieuxi ‘Julia Jane’

Julia Jane is from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and requires the greenhouse to look it’s best.  But the frilly flowers should be with us for the next month and that is surely a sign of spring.

Narcissus romieuxi ‘Julia Jane’ in bud