ASHLAND — Last week, after being inside hibernating for too long, I was starting to look forward to some sunshine.
On Inauguration Day, I saw some sunshine out the window, and it gave me some hope that the sun still existed, but it was cold.
While on the radio program the week before, the radio host asked me what my favorite early blooming flower was. Don’t you feel this is like asking a mom or a dad which child is your favorite?
Usually, we can go through a long list of why we would love a particular child more than the others, but the problem is that I love my kids and grandkids equally without hesitation and with all the fabric of my existence.
S.E. Schlosser retold a Tennessee tall tale about Winter Aconite.
“One winter, it was so cold that the dawn froze solid. The sun caught between two ice blocks, and the earth iced up so much that it could not turn. The first rays of sunlight froze halfway over the mountaintops. They looked like yellow icicles dripping towards the ground.”
For me, it sounds like last week for a few days.
“Now Davey Crocket was headed home after a successful night hunting when the dawn froze so solid. Being a smart man, he knew he had to do something quick, or the earth was a goner.
“He had a fresh kilt bar on his back, so he whipped it off, climbed right up on those rays of sunlight, and began beating the hot bar carcass against the ice block, squashing the sun. Soon, a hot oil gush burst from the bar, melting the ice.
“Davey gave the sun a good kick to get it started, and the sun’s heat unfroze the earth and started it spinning again.
“So, Davey lit his pipe on the sun, shouldered the bar, slid himself down the sun rays before they melted, and took a bit of sunrise home in his pocket. He emptied his pocket on the cold ground, and don’t you know they started to grow.”
Winter Aconite is one of my favorite early flowers. I look forward to these cold winter mornings, knowing that hunting my beds in the snow and finding my little sunshine lifts my spirits to know that the sun has not frozen over.
This Winter Aconite, Eranthis hymnalis, is native to the northern hemisphere. The Alps of Europe, the southern part of Turkey, Western China, southwestern Asia, Central Asia, Japan, northern Asia, Eastern Asia, and South Korea are where you can find the nine different species of woodland relatives of our Winter Aconite.
This information can help with your planting plans.
These tubers are members of the buttercup family, and as with other buttercups, you don’t want little children to put them in their mouths.
To help you understand this, Eranthis is poisonous from the present compounds — cardiac glycosides of the bufadienolide group like Adonis vernalis, rather than the virulent alkaloids of Aconitum.
My folks had many small children around all sorts of toxic plants without even one incident. As I have always recommended, planting anything in your garden requires a sense of wisdom.
As a member of the Buttercup family, I like Winter Aconite, and its large petals form a cup that is pointing up.
One of the reasons that I’m a fan of this plant is that they naturalize, or if you plant just a few of the little guys one day, we will have a carpet of yellow little cups smiling back at you as you are wading in the snow.
We can discover Winter Aconite when the weather gets slightly warmer in January and February.
When choosing a site to plant your Winter Aconite, select a thin lawn under a tree with other trees that also shade the area. Ideally, by the time you start mowing, these early flowers will have faded, and you have had your early show in the shade under the trees.
Another approach to planting Winter Aconite is to plant some other ground cover, such as Lung Wort, which has polka dot leaves and pink flowers in the spring. Naturalized plants are low maintenance and do well without any attention.
Do you remember Davey Crocket just emptied his pockets on the ground? That is a legitimate guide. Plant these tiny tubers one to two inches deep, and you will be fine.
Space your Winter Aconite one to two inches apart. This plant does best in rich, well-drained soil in a woodland setting in late summer or early fall. I have enjoyed my Winter
Aconite for a month, given that the snow had to melt off between viewings. I also like to put a good soil mix with some compost for a little added nutrient punch five inches deep when planting the first tubers.
Seeds come on this Winter Aconite and fall to the ground in March, depending on the season. I just scratched the seed out and put more soil over the bed.
These seeds can take up to three more years to catch.
I hope you have a great stroll through the snow in your garden. I am looking forward to our early bloomers. If you have any challenges, email me at ericlarson546@yahoo.com.
Thank you for participating in our column. Soon, I shall have a blog connected to my website, www.ohiohealthyfoodcooperative.org.