The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

I do love the spring. In the beautiful Bear Paw Mountains there is an abundance of early spring flowers that just make the coldest of hearts beat warmly in the soft spring sun.

In my yard at the house, I have seen most everything coming up from a long winter sleep. I always worry because again this year there was no snow cover to protect the roots of plants, just leaves I had not raked last fall.

First to come up are the poppies. Not only do they look healthy but there is a whole new bunch this year in another part of the garden. I love poppies. These are going to be beautiful. They are Oriental. I have planted many Iceland poppies through the years but they had a hard time making it for some reason.

This year’s selection of Rocket is all over. It came up last fall. Rocket only comes up every other year so this is a big year for it. Last year was a big year too but not for the same Rocket. Old timers call it Sweet Rocket. It is one of my favorite flowers. It grows to five feet high, is thick with blooms and sweet and this year is even growing in the lawn in the back yard. I can hardly wait for it to start blooming.

My Maltese Crosses came from seeds gotten from Glacier Park Lodge gardens at East Glacier. For the first three years they did not do much at all but after that they went crazy and started appearing all over the garden. Amazing and beautiful!

Lupine is difficult to grow but mine all came up again this year. I have three large clumps, Yellow, red and blue.

Daisies are showing up as are the cone flowers but they are very slow.

Snow on the mountain grows like weeds in that garden patch.

The only thing that I haven’t seen any green on this spring is my tame sage. It is very temperamental and one of the easiest to winter kill. I think it is just early for it. I am hoping anyway. What would I do with this year’s Thanksgiving turkey without sage dressing from the back yard?

Anyway, hurrah for spring! It awakens the kind and gentle part of me and that has to be a good thing!