Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Flowering Cherry "Snow Fountain"

First blooms on March 19 on the "Snow Fountain" weeping flowering cherry in the side garden. Only one or two flowers have opened, and even those have mostly been blasted by the heavy rains we've had, but the first flowers opened yesterday. "Snow Fountain" bloomed on March 23 in 2009 and on March 14 in 2010, calculating years of 356 days and 370 days, which average to 363 days, just short of an actual year.

Plants I'm Growing: Cistus Salvifolius, "Snow Fountain" Weeping Cherry

First blossoms today on the "Snow Fountain" weeping cherry on the side of the house. Warmer weather has coaxed out just a few flowers, but soon the entire tree will be covered in white. In 2009, the plant bloomed on March 23. Thus, a year according to this plant was 356 days.

A single blossom opened on one of the prostrate rock roses (Cistus salivifolius) today as well. That seems very early. Only one bud has opened. Most of the buds don't even look fully formed. I suspect it will be several weeks before this plant is really in bloom, but, for the purposes of my botanical calendar, I record the first blossom today. The plant bloomed on April 2 in 2009. A year according to this plant was thus 346 days.

Plants I'm growing: First Blooms--"Pink Lady" apple and "Snow Fountain" weeping cherry

The first flowers opened today on the apple tree, a "Pink Lady," (top photo) and the weeping cherry ("Snow Fountain"). In both cases only one or two isolated buds have opened. The trees are far from being in bloom. On the apple tree, the highest branches haven't even seen bud break yet. Nevertheless, I record the first open blossoms here for the purposes of my botanical calendar. The pink crabapple has many buds, but none open yet.