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Daffodils in FEBRUARY!? Ok Spring is not even official until like March 21st. Most states in the upper Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and New England are still in the deep throes of winter and would not even think about seeing blooming plant life in February. In Texas, the sign of Spring is not expected until March with and the big deal is Bluebonnets which start to appear mid to late March.
Yeah we go back to Pittsburgh in April and its still dead and gray. I travel across the mid west for work and everything is pretty gray until mid April if not later. South East 1st March you get color, but also oppressive heat. Id like more color in CO but Im too busy most the time to notice.
I grew up in the St. Louis area--my parents' house isn't too far from where the Mississippi and Missouri rivers meet. So I'm familiar with green and flowers.
In all honesty, though, I don't find Denver's springs 'depressing' or 'bleak'. Granted, our winters can take up more than their fair share of time, but the norm is that most snows will melt quickly. We get quite a bit of sun here, which I find much more helpful than anything.
But I also don't think Denver is as 'brown and barren' as others do. It's not as green as where I grew up, but it's not completely *dead* either.
As for seeing flowers bloom in February (outdoors).....umm, granted, I've never lived in the PNW, so maybe it's different there, but I've spent Februaries in Missouri, South Carolina, Georgia, Panama, Germany, Texas, and Oklahoma. The only place I saw flowers blooming in February was Panama. Which is a warm, humid climate all year round.
Right now, I'm seeing patches of green grass in my yards. I personally get a kick out of watching the green eventually take over. And I'm seeing the little 'clumps' on my tree branches where the leaves with be bursting forth soon. Personally, I have fun watching the trees and waiting to see those first leaves. It's sort of like Christmas when you're a kid--the anticipation is the best part.
Do I miss things about Missouri's climate? Yes and no. I do miss rivers and more frequent rains. I don't miss the heat and humidity. I do miss cardinals (as in the birds--occasionally one makes its way out here, but it's rare.) On the other hand, I can see the mountains every morning on my drive into work, and they're always stunning. Sometimes they don't even look like they could possibly be real. I did tend to miss to more variety of color in the fall, but I've noticed lately that seems to be changing. I'm guessing folk are planting more trees that aren't usually found in Colorado. (Hopefully no more ashes!)
Do people romanticize Denver? Undoubtedly. I've been here 21 years. My mom's visited a couple of times. She still keeps insisting I 'live in the mountains'. (I live in the southeastern part of the metro area.) But people will romanticize any area. One man's 'sweeping prairie landscape where a body can see for miles' is another man's 'damn Kansas is as flat as a pancake and there ain't nothin' to see here'. One person's 'cool, refreshing, misty Seattle rains' can trigger another person's SAD. Not everybody is going to like the same things equally.
However, to the OP--as several have pointed out, you have not been here all that long. You work a lot, and hardly get out. I think at this point you have decided that you are unhappy, and are determined to find fault with everything. If it's really this bad for you, then break your lease, and go on your merry way. There's no point in staying if you are absolutely this miserable.
I grew up in the St. Louis area--my parents' house isn't too far from where the Mississippi and Missouri rivers meet. So I'm familiar with green and flowers.
In all honesty, though, I don't find Denver's springs 'depressing' or 'bleak'. Granted, our winters can take up more than their fair share of time, but the norm is that most snows will melt quickly. We get quite a bit of sun here, which I find much more helpful than anything.
But I also don't think Denver is as 'brown and barren' as others do. It's not as green as where I grew up, but it's not completely *dead* either.
As for seeing flowers bloom in February (outdoors).....umm, granted, I've never lived in the PNW, so maybe it's different there, but I've spent Februaries in Missouri, South Carolina, Georgia, Panama, Germany, Texas, and Oklahoma. The only place I saw flowers blooming in February was Panama. Which is a warm, humid climate all year round.
Right now, I'm seeing patches of green grass in my yards. I personally get a kick out of watching the green eventually take over. And I'm seeing the little 'clumps' on my tree branches where the leaves with be bursting forth soon. Personally, I have fun watching the trees and waiting to see those first leaves. It's sort of like Christmas when you're a kid--the anticipation is the best part.
Do I miss things about Missouri's climate? Yes and no. I do miss rivers and more frequent rains. I don't miss the heat and humidity. I do miss cardinals (as in the birds--occasionally one makes its way out here, but it's rare.) On the other hand, I can see the mountains every morning on my drive into work, and they're always stunning. Sometimes they don't even look like they could possibly be real. I did tend to miss to more variety of color in the fall, but I've noticed lately that seems to be changing. I'm guessing folk are planting more trees that aren't usually found in Colorado. (Hopefully no more ashes!)
Do people romanticize Denver? Undoubtedly. I've been here 21 years. My mom's visited a couple of times. She still keeps insisting I 'live in the mountains'. (I live in the southeastern part of the metro area.) But people will romanticize any area. One man's 'sweeping prairie landscape where a body can see for miles' is another man's 'damn Kansas is as flat as a pancake and there ain't nothin' to see here'. One person's 'cool, refreshing, misty Seattle rains' can trigger another person's SAD. Not everybody is going to like the same things equally.
However, to the OP--as several have pointed out, you have not been here all that long. You work a lot, and hardly get out. I think at this point you have decided that you are unhappy, and are determined to find fault with everything. If it's really this bad for you, then break your lease, and go on your merry way. There's no point in staying if you are absolutely this miserable.
I go to STL a lot for work and the winters there aren't really great, pretty miserable. Spring was pretty in late April/early May. I was there in August and it was 105. It was awful. I get a weird vibe about that city. Parts look like it was bombed out like 15 years ago and never re built.
I go to STL a lot for work and the winters there aren't really great, pretty miserable. Spring was pretty in late April/early May. I was there in August and it was 105. It was awful. I get a weird vibe about that city. Parts look like it was bombed out like 15 years ago and never re built.
Summers in St. Louis play a large part in why I do not live there anymore. Actually, my favorite season for St. Louis is autumn.
And can't really disagree with you about the 'bombed out' look of some parts, sadly. St. Louis has some lovely French and German style buildings from the 1800's, but other parts.....yeah.
As one who had only lived in lush and green environments prior to relocating to Colorado, I can relate to your sentiments. I was fine living in the Denver area while it lasted, but when my spouse was offered a new job in Dallas, my first thought was flora and vegetation. I wondered what kind existed in DFW.
As we drove out of Denver and through East Colorado on moving day, it was like going into the heart of Dante's circles of non-vegetative hell eventually crossing back out into a new promised land of adequate flora and plant life. The towns we passed through to get there must have been where Mad Max was filmed. In fact, an old bearded guy on a rusty, pieced together scooter with dirty, stained liquor bottles on his back rack sputtered past us as we passed through one of these Eastern CO towns. I believe he was wearing aviation goggles and he grinned a toothless grin as he passed. As we drove over the TX line, it began raining heavily and a rainbow appeared above green, lush farmland surrounded by a perimeter of large blossoming fruit trees. I heard what sounded like singing and trumpeting from above.
I always thought of Colorado as embodying two different realities. One found in idyllic towns like Aspen or Breckenridge offering inhabitants the Colorado mountain paradise and dream. Towns like Golden and Evergreen are like gateways to this paradise. The other reality was the one that I found myself living in down in Broomfield. While I enjoyed the mountain views in the background, my day to day life on the Front Range was much different from what many think of when they think 'Colorado.' It was basically the suburbs set in a Mad Maxian, post apocalyptic flat, dry, and barren land for much of the year. There were minimal trees in which to shelter under from the unrelenting high desert sun. Homes were often surrounded by rock-pebble garden borders versus soil beds for plants and flowers and privacy was minimal due to lack of vegetation and very small yards. The rolling brown hills approaching Boulder provided a picturesque view, but as one drove in the other direction, the land was often just brown, dusty, and flat.
On our first evening in DFW, I sat under the shaded canopy of a large towering tree in my front yard that shielded me from view of the street and the neighbor's home. I breathed in the plant and floral aromas mingling together in the warm, water infused air that reminded me of childhood memories in Atlanta. Bugs appeared and I welcomed them. The Earth was moist and teeming with life beneath my feet. Familiar birds like bluejays and cardinals darted in and out of trees, and butterflies and lightening bugs appeared around lush bushes. I basked in the sense of privacy and seclusion that these plants afforded my yard. The cicadas buzzed and sang in the background from the looming trees. It all felt like a miracle and a coming home. I had been gone so long from these familiar sights and smells, and had missed it so much. I was ecstatic to be back in an environment that was teeming with life.
There is no way I can garden with my shoebox sized backyard in my condo complex.. Not that I would have the time anyway, right now.....
There is a solution to your type of SAD problem and there is no excuse for you to not try it. You're thinking too much outside the box at a time when you should be thinking inside the box, namely the inside of your home.
You need flowers in winter to get you through to full-on spring. There is a perennial, evergreen indoor houseplant that is super easy for any beginners to grow, which requires minimal care, no direct sunlight and which starts blooming in late November and will continue blooming profusely right through winter and into early April, sometimes a bit longer. So grow a winter garden for yourself indoors to satisfy that "I desperately need plants and flowers!" feeling through the winter/spring months.
The flowers are stunningly beautiful and they come in a multitude of brilliant colours. It's called the Phalaenopsis orchid, it's not expensive at all, can be found in any store that sells houseplants, and it's worthwhile getting several of them to have an array of different colours of months-long lasting blossoms at the greyest time of year. I personally have 20 of these plants inside my little residence to lift my spirits and relieve cabin fever during winter and the flowers on mine all last for about 5 months. Sometimes mine will also bloom again in mid summer for 2 or 3 months. No others of the many thousands of species of orchids in the world will perform as well and with such minimal, easy care as the Phalaenopsis orchids.
Do some research about it. Get some. You can take control about doing things to make yourself happy next winter and spring.
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Last edited by Zoisite; 03-26-2019 at 05:51 PM..
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Actually, my favorite season for St. Louis is autumn. 
