Now is the time to dig up the earliest bloomers and divide them to start new colonies in other parts of the garden. It is easy to see where they would add color next winter. One clump of snowdrops yielded a dozen blooms on a dozen bulbs. I washed off the bulbs and gently pulled them apart before replanting them so they could settle new areas of the garden.

Snowdrops waiting to be divided and replanted.

Winter aconite comes along usually in February, slightly after the snowdrops begin their bloom. I adore its golden chalices glistening above a ruffled collar of foliage. As the corms mature they send up more flowers. I dug up a clump of nine blooms planning to divide them, only to discover they were all coming from one walnut-sized corm. That’s one hard working guy. The blooms stay for a few weeks departing before the snowdrops, but their foliage sticks around growing larger and more beautiful for another month or two.

One small corm of winter aconite can send up nine blooms.