Publisher’s Letter: Signs of Spring

If you’re big into Winter sports, you may be just humming along waiting for a late-season blizzard like the one we had mid-March 2019. For the rest of us, while we enjoy our 4-season climate, around this time of year, we may be eagerly seeking the first signs of Spring.

Enter the crocus! Long considered a symbol of youth and cheerfulness by the Greeks — just looking at a crocus puts a spring in my step. This amazing little frost-hearty, early bloomer has always been among my favorites, perhaps because it represents such overcoming. With the least encouragement, just a little warmth from the sun, it can be seen pushing right up through the snow — a miracle of nature that makes for a great photo-op.

If you’re a homeowner, perhaps you’ve planted crocuses (also called “croci”) last Fall so any day now you’ll see them pop up in deep purple, variegated lavender, white, or bright yellow. Your efforts will be repaid year after year, as these flowers multiply.

For those of us who live in apartments, or just don’t possess a green thumb, you may find these cheery little blooms walking through neighborhoods. Our friends at Fort Collins Nursery suggest that we look for south-facing flower beds, and especially near rock faces or in rock gardens as the rocks hold warmth from the sun and encourage even earlier blooming.

Another opportunity to see nature in all its glory even at this time of year would be to plan a visit to The Gardens at Spring Creek.

You may also encounter wild violets walking along our many trails.

And last, but certainly not least, for you armchair travelers in need of a reminder that Spring is right around the corner, we recommend WILDFLOWERS OF COLORADO, by John Fielder, available at Old Firehouse Books, with page upon page of fields of stunning wildflowers, along with when and where they show up. You could plan a summer trip to Crested Butte, “the wildflower capital of the world” or another closer location outlined in this book.

We hope you’ll get out there and explore this and other wonders of Northern Colorado — this wonderful region we all call home.

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Blaine Howerton