It Must Be Spring

The teddy bears' favourite season of the year is Spring. "It's as if everything is just waking up from a very long afternoon nap," said James. The sunshine was pouring through the window where he stood and he was feeling very warm. As he looked out, he thought he saw something white sitting under the tree outside. "I wonder what that is?" he thought.

"Scary, Scary, what's that out there?" he asked his friend. Scary came over to the window and looked out as well. "Where?" he asked.

"Just over there - under the tree!" James replied, pointing out the window. "See how white it is against the dark soil?"

Scary looked in the direction James was pointing. He squinted a little bit against the strong sunlight but then saw the white 'thing' that James had seen. "Shall we go outside and look?" he asked James.

"Oh, yes, please!" James shouted. He was so eager to find out what his discovery was that he ran straight to the door, waiting for Scary to open it for him (he wasn't quite tall enough himself to reach the handle).

"Wait a minute!" called Scary. He knew that, although it was warm standing inside by the window where the sun was shining in, it would still be very chilly out in the garden. "First of all we'll need to put our scarves on - it will be cold outside."

James gave a long sigh. But he knew Scary was right and he ran back to find his warm, woolly scarf and wound it round his neck. When all the other bears saw James putting his scarf on, they asked where he was going. When they found out it was for a trip into the garden with Scary, they asked if they could go too. "Of course you can - the more, the merrier!" he said. "We're going to investigate something I've seen from the window," he explained.

All the bears put on their scarves and proceeded to the door which Scary had already opened and they ran out into the garden. It was a little chilly out there, but the idea of finding out what James had seen made them ignore it for the moment.

James ran over to the area where he thought he had seen something white. It took a second or two but eventually he found a tiny, white flower. And as he looked around, he found another and then another!

"Look!" he shouted. "Over here!"

The other bears all gathered around him and his discovery. "What are they?" asked Lizzy. "They're very pretty and delicate. Should they be out here in this cold weather?"

"They're snowdrops," said Richard. "We've seen loads in the local woods and we saw a few here last year too, but there seem to be so many more! I wonder where they've all come from?"

Luckily, Bubbles had run back into the house, and returned with their Flower Book and looked up the entry for Snowdrops. He proceeded to read out some very interesting facts, the first of which seemed to answer Richard's question:

Snowdrops come up every year and may multiply and spread over time. Once you have a patch started, they will spread on their own by self-seeding.

The flower is formed in the bulb the previous March and waits nearly a whole year before pushing through the soil.

On a sunny day, snowdrops are highly scented and give off a honey smell. If you have enough plants, the perfume will fill the garden.

Snowdrops contain their own anti-freeze proteins which is why they can survive the very cold weather.

Snowdrops are very small plants that don't have much impact when grown singly, so their bulbs should be planted closely together in groups of at least 25. If you plant them in Autumn, they will flower the following Spring.

And the snowdrop has other names: "Fair Maids Of February" or "Candlemas Bells" (Candlemas being the 2nd of February).

One thing to bear in mind, though, is that the bulbs are toxic for humans, dogs and cats alike, so be extra careful when planting them.

By now, though, although it was very interesting to know all about snowdrops, and see how many there were in the garden, the bears were wanting to get back inside the house and get warm again - cold bears are never very happy!

Maybe you could look round your garden, or the local park or woodlands, and see if you can find any snowdrops - a sure sign that it must be Spring!