Alice Nicolson reports: This week we’ve gotten a welcome taste of spring at Collington. White snowdrops have been blooming in spots since Christmas but this week the later species is in full bloom in many gardens – check out the side garden of 4207. Crocuses – purple, blue, yellow and white – have popped up in many clusters – hyacinths in yellow and blue are opening near the 1000 entrance, and just down the perimeter road a bed of mixed varieties of daffodils is beginning. Huge golden trumpet daffies are making a show at 1218, and more will soon appear outside the Bird Room and in many other areas around campus.
One type of helleb
ore, the “Christmas Rose”, has been blooming since December all over campus in whites, creams and beige – the bed near the Ivy Bar has a nice display of this and its cousin the “Lenten Rose” with clumps of red, purple, whites and dapples. Walk around the 1000s to see more. Look for primroses here and there and visit the 4000 cluster for other blooms just starting. Forsythias will soon make golden masses – a few flowers are already open. And finally, enjoy our newly planted earliest cherry variety, “Okame”, which is now blooming across from the clocktower, on the loading dock slope, and below the greenhouse (there is also a single tree by the roadside behind 1109). These trees have extended our cherry blossom season by about three weeks – the two other varieties on campus, Yoshono and Kwanza, will bloom in sequence in April into May. What a great time of year to walk around!