Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--White Flowering Japanese Plum Prunus Mume (January 15, 2012)

January 14 brought the first blossoms of 2012 on the white flowering Japanese plum in the side garden. This is Prunus mume, a wonderfully fragrant plum that can make half the garden smell like spring. It's usually among the first plants to flower in the new year. Last year, in 2011, it bloomed earlier than usual, on January 4. Thus, the tree calculated a longish year of 376 days. It bloomed on January 21 in 2009 and on January 19 in 2010, for years of 350 days and 363 days. So far, a year as viewed by this particular tree, has averaged 363 days--a little short of an actual year.