Mimosa

As we enter February I always look forward to seeing the beautiful and fragile looking snowdrops.
They are not fragile at all as they will happily push their tiny white flowers through the snow to
give us the very first sign of Spring. When I lived in Spain Spring came early with the almond blossoms
making swathes of pink up and down the hillsides around out home and along with it came the wonderful
yellow Mimosa. MIMOSOIDEAE has 400 species in the family and in our garden we had a large hanging tree
if the yellow variety: this variety is very prolific in warmer climes of Europe but no more so than in
the South of France where it covers the whole coast from Cannes to Hyeres, Nice to the lower slopes of
the Pyrenees. In France they have a Mimosa Trail for the visitors and a Mimosa festival 'FETE DE mIMOSA'.
I lived in Spain where the winters could be a little too chilly for this beauty but nevertheless we had
one in our garden which never failed to delight us in February, about a month later than in France but
ever welcome. Children in the aria used to pick a bunch to give to the abuela (granny) for Candlemas
so there was a constant watch on the trees to see if they were going to be at their best so early in the
but Juan, our man in the garden sould always find a small early sprig for his grandaughter.