When What To My Wondering Eyes Should Appear ...

Thank you, Kathy! This was a wonderful Solstice surprise!

You thought it was going to be a butterfly, didn't you?  Nope.  Even more improbably, it's a Colchicum  that was gently and lovingly uprooted from its upstate New York environs in 2011, transported across country to Seattle and from thence back across country to my corner of Katy, whereupon it was rudely thrust into inhospitable heat and humidity.  This was one of several Colchicums kindly given to me by Kathy of Cold Climate Gardening and I didn't expect this fall blooming bulb to survive even that first summer, let alone a second.  Yet here it is, with lush and healthy foliage, looking for all the world like it belongs in Zone 9a/b.  Those who look closely will also spy a second set of leaves emerging from the ground!  Given that it's made it this far, it's not so impossible to believe that it might someday go so far as to bloom.  Hey, if you were willing to seriously consider the possibility that the world would end today, then surely you can acknowledge that a Colchicum bloom in South Central Texas is not so far fetched????!!!!