The North Country experiences notoriously frigid weather conditions during the winter months, yet at this point on St. Lawrence’s Campus the annual return of daffodils were able to sprout up during the middle of February. As one can see, there’s snow covering the ground surrounding this small garden (except for the walkway) begging the question: why are there daffodils sprouting in the middle of February? The explanation for the presence of these sprouts is simple, running beneath this flower bed are water pipes that carry hot water to the buildings across campus. The radiant heat from these pipes leave paths of green grass throughout campus during the winter because snow can’t accumulate on the surface above these pipes with this increased ground temperature. When the ground beneath the flowers is abnormally warm during winter, this confuses the flowers’ life cycle by causing them to grow early. The daffodils are able to stay alive once they have broken through the surface thanks to the strong presence of sun which helps them to perform their necessary photosynthesis processes before the plants are supposed to.