We are just beginning to dig out from another white coating of snow and ice…this time a deep one, deep at least for this part of North Carolina. The neighborhood kids are out of school and loving it. The bird feeders are emptying rapidly, and I refilled the suet cage. But my thoughts, this morning, are not on the storm but on what’s underneath it all.

Last week I saw daffodils in bloom uptown. Daffodils have reliably bloomed each year at the entrance to my grandchildren’s neighborhood in early January. My hellebores are full of buds. As I walked through my garden before the storm, I spied numerous bulbs poking up their greenery…bluebells, lycoris, crocus, alliums, muscari, and daffodils. I smiled when I saw how they had multiplied with yet another year in the ground. The clumps of iphaeion have been up since before Christmas, and, as soon as the snow melts off, will probably start blooming by the end of the month. Iphaeion is a wonder of a bulb; the single tiny bulb I planted a year ago has already tripled or quadrupled. Their pale blue blossoms will make a lovely edge along the path by the house.

Ipheion

So I can look out the window, watch the birds flitting about, and wait for the melting to begin. Underneath it all are those bulbs, resting a bit in the cold, but filled with energy that will make our spring garden a thing of beauty once again.