Winter Bloom Way Ahead of Schedule!

This shocking but true documentation is for my friend and colleague, Manager of Continuing Education (and bulb expert) Jill Selinger up at the Chicago Botanic Garden. We are both fans of Allium multibilbosum. Today I mentioned that I had seen this bloom on Pulmonaria (mollis, I think) in my garden two days ago.  Normal bloom time is April...We shall see what happens to our gardens given the super warm winter and drought.

Thank you to the thoughtful comments I received from many of you via email in response to my previous post about religion & politics. I have a number of deadlines before I leave for Guatemala and so I will answer to the group. I guess one of my points is that I still have various types of relationships with people with whom I disagree. But for me: we have to be able to have a discussion and one predicated on owning up to our subjective perspectives. It is this shift in being able to disagree that I note. Plus, I witness all kinds of "isms" (racism, sexism, nationalism) coming back into fashion and many people seem fine practicing them. That will never be acceptable to me. Most of my life has been about transparency, telling things as they are.  This was vital to my many years as a teacher and writer and is just as important in my current job.  I have always been a landscape designer who advises my clients on realistic expectations given environment, personality, budget and time constraints. So in this current climate of many people not discussing our real and large challenges, image how that might affect my job.