Signs of spring

On our way back to Asheville, FB reminded me of a memory from 3 years ago:  this Hepatica in flower.

2/23/2015

We'd planted a fairly robust plant in our enriched conifer (formerly perennial) raised bed below the house. It flowered nicely that year. I don't think it survived another year, but it was well worth seeing it then.

Delightful.  

I have memories over the decades of seeing Hepatica in spring; first, the European species in the snow.  As a post-doc, my entire lab group made a pilgrimage to where our professor knew where it was flowering, literally under the snow.  Second, in the botanical garden where I worked for decades, we had one hardy specimen of H. acutiloba that reliably flowered in its singular rocky location.  At the Botanical Gardens at Asheville, there were also Hepatica, as of course there were in the mountains, too, although not especially common.

They're always a harbinger of spring.