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Forsoothia! Why we're not seeing our usual explosion of yellow blooms
By adamg on Sun, 04/23/2023 - 1:34pm
Dave Epstein explains why the winter just past means fewer than normal forsythia blooms this spring: The plants got mistaken into thinking spring was coming early, then a cold snap in February killed most of the would-be flowers. The plants themselves, he adds, will be OK.
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Comments
Our weeping cherry did not flower this year
which is the first time in the ~6 years we've lived in this house. A friend in Medford said that theirs is putting out a few flowers, although concurrently with leaves. (Usually it puts out a profuse set of flowers, and only leafs out as the flowers are dropping.)
It's going to be a rough year for the pollinators. :-(
Meanwhile
Trees with white blooms seem to be doing fine this year.
Well, some of them.
The weeping cherries that I mentioned have white blooms. But I have seen some ornamental apples blooming, yes.
Not just forsythia
I'm hearing from local orchards that there won't be any peaches this year, for the same reason.
NO PEACHES!
I love peaches! I guess they'll only have imported peaches this year.
♫♪Millions of peaches, peaches for me
Millions of peaches, peaches for free
Millions of peaches, peaches for me
Millions of peaches, peaches for free♪♫
Lilacs
I was worried about my lilacs, especially since last summer's drought and heat shocked one of them into an unexpected fall bloom, but they're doing great. In fact, I've got the most profuse bloom I've ever seen on the older one.
They do seem to be running early, though. If it's anything like this at the Arnold Arboretum, they're going to be past their peak there by Lilac Sunday/Mother's Day.
Allergies
As someone who developed a tree pollen allergy in the last few years (thanks, climate change!), I do not weep for this news.
Lilacs
I'd be happy if this also impacted lilacs.
Probably not, though.
I was wondering if there would be a rose die off again. I remember 2003-4 we had a super deep freeze in early December, a thaw around New Years, and then another super deep freeze in January. The plants started to wake up when it got into the 50s and then all died. Mine were developed in NH in the 1850s so one would think that they would have made it, but only one did.