In the garden: the crocuses are out!

Every year in Skagit County we slog into February feeling like spring will never come. It’s been windy and wet and cold for months, and we know perfectly well that summer won’t really get under way until July. But then in February, every year, there’s a spot of warm sunny weather. Just enough to get people out into their yards and start thinking about the possibility of spring.

The timing of our sunny weather often coincides with the blooming of the first round of crocus, letting the flowers open up wide to the sky. A good rainstorm will flatten them, but while the weather’s warm nothing is so jolly as a lawn spread with purple and yellow crocus. Soon it’ll start raining again, but by then we’ll have the daffodils, which can stand up to it.