Twist of weather...

Living here in Colorado for so long, you’d think we wouldn’t be surprised by its sudden mood swings. Just two weeks ago, the weather shifted dramatically - from warm and pleasant to full-on snow (click here to see that story - Two Days, Two Weathers…), ending with feet of snow covering the ground and flowers (click here to refresh your memory - Beauty of Snow...)... So why were we surprised again last weekend, when everything changed overnight? A beautiful, warm Saturday turned into a bitterly cold Sunday.

 

But let’s start with something nice… like these beautiful tulips.

You know, that twist in the weather was so sharp… so brutal. One day everything was blooming - spring dressed in its finest, and the next morning all that beauty was buried under a thick layer of snow, freezing, fading, collapsing into itself. And since I was at Denver Botanic Garden both days, let me take you from one morning to the next so you can see the difference. The same flowers, just 24 hours apart.

One morning, I was admiring their bright, delicate petals…

...and the next I was crying when I found them frostbitten, hidden beneath an inch of snow ;( 

Tulips, surprisingly, survived this mishap more or less intact, despite how bad they looked. 

But not the daffodils. More delicate and fragile, they were hit hard. It was painful to see them buried in snow, with little chance of recovery.

It was hard to believe that just a day earlier I had enjoyed these same flowers basking in sunlight, making the world feel brighter.

And the next day they were buried in snow...

So beautiful and so sad, isn't it?

The same tulips. The same cluster of flowers just one day apart... can you believe it?

The rhododendron bush looked gorgeous, completely covered in bright flowers…

…flowers that didn’t survive the snowfall. The cold killed them, and today the bush looks bare and defeated.

Magnolia blooms had only just begun to open, and that timing saved some of them. 

Those that were half-open didn’t make it, but others remained tightly closed, still waiting for better weather.

This Japanese cherry bush had only a couple blossoms open on Saturday and it saved it! Today its branches are covered in soft pink flowers, with only a few showing signs of damage.

The apricot tree looked absolutely stunning on Saturday, and I was hopeful when I saw that the snow didn’t cling to its branches - thanks to the wind sweeping it away as it fell.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. And today the tree looks pitiful, its blossoms scorched by the cold. One of the saddest sights I’ve seen in years.

The blooming crabapple wasn’t in a hurry. Only a few flowers had opened, and while those were damaged, the buds survived. Now the tree looks magnificent (I promise to show it next time).

The star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) was so beautiful that on my way back to the car I stopped and spent another fifteen minutes walking around a single tree, even after I had already called it a day and holstered my camera.

But the next day, I wept looking at the beautiful petals burned by frost. I had no idea how delicate they were, so fragile that the snow destroyed them almost instantly, leaving no chance to recover.

Well... a few more photos from that cold, somber Sunday morning… I spent about an hour and a half out there, under a heavy, grey sky.

But this is Colorado, after all - always playing its games. The snow started twice, changing the entire look of the garden, light flakes drifting through the air, settling over what was already covered in frost.... and... the sun peeked out twice too, transforming everything with some hope before disappearing again behind heavy clouds. Crazy!

Photos taken on March 14-15, 2026.