“Snowdrops: Theirs is a fragile but hearty celebration … in the very
teeth of winter.”
~ Louise Beebe
Wilder
~American gardening
writer & designer
whose books are now considered classics of their era
~
1878 ~ 1938
Crocuses and daffodils are beautiful and wonderful to see, but the very
first sign of spring being just around the corner are snowdrops – making them
the jewels of winter. I captured these snowdrops in this infrared image on a
late February afternoon along the Saucon Rail Trail in Lower Saucon Township,
Hellertown, Pennsylvania.
Snowdrops are hardy perennial, winter-flowering plants that are often
heralded as the first sign of spring. They bloom as early as January or
February whatever the weather ~ they will even push through frozen,
snow-covered ground.
Snowdrops are also known as Candlemas Bells, as they
were gathered at Candlemas February 2 to decorate churches before the
Reformation. They were symbols of purity, which was connected to the rite of
purification that Mary observed by going to the temple forty days after
Christmas. The festival
was formerly known in the Roman Catholic Church as the Purification of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and is now known as the Presentation of the Lord. In the Anglican
Church it is called the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. During Candlemas,
all of the candles to be used in the church for the coming year are blessed,
and the faithful are invited to bring their own candles so that they can be
blessed and used in the home for prayer throughout the year.
Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, named the snowdrop the Galanthus
nivalis, “milk flower of the snow,” in 1753.
