Ramps bring spring

In leaf-littered deciduous woodlands, and on warm slopes, the ramps are rising. Allium tricoccum, harbinger of a native spring. Often the only green thing on the brown forest floor. 

While they can grow wall-to-wall where they are prolific, commercial over-harvesting of wild populations has threatened ramps in some locations. In the wild, I collect a small handful of bulbs, and focus instead on the leaves, a practise I began...Hm. Maybe six years ago?

And I grow them, too, in pots, where they are remarkably resilient, weathering and surviving the brutal freeze-thaw that turns many bulbs to mush.

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