Mr. E.A. Bowles (1865-1954), horticulturalist, plantsman and garden writer, asks: "When does spring commence?" in the first chapter of his book My garden in spring, published in 1914.
He explores the question from different points of view, ignoring the obvious answer, that is "the 21st of March".
He takes into account: "the astronomical point of view", Hesiod's Work and Day, Pliny's Natural History, and the scientific certainties of the meteorologists based upon the "increase of the average daily temperature".
Not satisfied with the answers, he turns to the garden and solemnly determines that the "starting to grow" marks the beginning of the new season. It is a universal event announced by "a melting of the covering of snow ... with the high alpines, or the commencement of the rains in the African veld."
And to find the flower that "recalls a feeling of Spring", he follows the smell of a bloom with "a promise of honey in it strong enough to wake any bee..." and "soft lilac colouring and crystalline texture and frail substance..."
He concludes,
"... I shall elect Iris unguicularis as the first flower of Spring, and arrange further chapters more on the flowers themselves than on the dates of their flowering."
and I continue my reading... happy...
Photos:
Travelinagarden
Further reading:
My garden in spring, E.A. Bowles,
New York: Dodge Pub. Co., [1914]
http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.19768
