Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Michelia Yunnanensis, Rosa Mutabilis (March 11, 2014)

Warm weather has coaxed out new flowers in the garden. On the 11th, the first buds of this year opened on the Michelia Yunnanensis (a magnolia relative native to the Far East) at the side of the house. I love this plant for its deep green foliage and the beautiful cinnamon-colored covers on the buds. The 11th was also the first day of blooms on the large wild rose, also on the side of the house. This is Rosa mutabilis chinensis. It lives up to its name. The color of the blossoms is highly mutable, changing as the flowers age.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms (March 9, 2014)

With some rain now behind us and warmer weather, the garden is beginning to come alive again. On March 5, the small Rhododendron called "Pink Snow Flakes" began to bloom. The Kerria by the side wall started blooming at about the same time--a plant I know by its Japanese name, yamabuki. On March 6th the first of the species tulips Tulipa bakeri started to bloom (above). Only a few of these are left. I planted hundreds, but they were discovered one summer by the ground squirrels. The squirrels dug them all up and ate them. They are slowly spreading again. The Nanking cherry (Prunus tomentosa) began blooming on the 6th as well. The large Ray Hartman Ceanothus started blooming around the same time (below). The dwarf peach and dwarf nectarine behind the house are both in full bloom now, along with the golden currant bush (Ribes aureum).

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Golden Currant and Two-toned Daffodils

First blooms in 2014 on the two-toned daffodils in the front garden on February 18. The golden current (Ribes aureum) in the back garden began blooming on February 17.

[Update: The dwarf flowering peach in the garden began blooming this year on February 21. The dwarf nectarine began blooming on February 27.]

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Yellow Daffodils

I belatedly report that our yellow daffodils began to bloom on February 8--tentatively at first, in the heavy rain, but they are fully open now that the rain has stopped and the sun is out. The yellow daffodils began blooming on February 18 in 2013, February 15 in 2012, February 2 in 2011, and on February 5 in 2009, so this seems a fairly typical date. I photographed them last night, still with water on them from the rain.  

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Pluot "Dapple Dandy," Flowering Plum, Daphne Odorata

I noticed the first open buds today on the large Daphne odorata behind the house. The plant has done poorly lately. Inexplicably, about half the plant turned brown and dried up last summer. Water wasn't the problem, or the whole plant would have withered. It remains a mystery, but I'm happy to see flowers on the part of the plant that has survived. The Daphne bloomed on January 2 in 2013, which was quite early. The plant bloomed on February 7, 2012, January 21, 2011, and January 19, 2010.

On February 3, the first flowers appeared on the Pluot "Dapple Dandy" (above) and the pink flowering plum (Prunus blireana) behind the house, although, following the pattern of recent years, the latter has few remaining buds on it. The sparrows, juncos, and House Finches in the yard like to eat the flowers before they open, presumably for the nectar within. They remove virtually every bud on branches stout enough to perch on. The plum first bloomed on February 17 in 2009, February 4 in 2011, February 2, in 2012, and February 15, in 2013, so this is a fairly typical date (I don't have a record for 2010). "Dapple Dandy" first bloomed on February 5 in 2009, February 15 in 2010, February 4 in 2011, and February 23 in 2013. I can't find a record for "Dapple Dandy" for 2012.

 

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Pink flowering plum, dwarf cyclamen

The pink flowering plum in the front of the house and the dwarf cyclamen, Cyclamen coum, behind the house are reliably among the first plants in the garden to bloom each year--although beaten this year by our white flowering plum, now in full bloom, smelling heavenly. The dwarf cyclamen began blooming on January 13, 2014. It bloomed on December 23, 2012 (which I counted as 2013) and also on December 23, 2011 (counted as 2012). It bloom ed on January 3 in 2010 and January 8 in 2009, so this year was a bit later than usual. The plum began blooming on January 14. It bloomed on January 20 in 2013, January 22 in 2012, and January 19 in 2011--so, somewhat early this year.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Flowering Japanese Plum (December 30, 2013)

For several years now I've been keeping a record of the first blooms of the year of various plant species in the garden. Usually our dwarf cyclamen (Cyclamen coum) has the first blooms of the new year, in very late December (I count these December flowers as new blooms because they're the first blooms in the new cycle of flowering each year). This year (thinking of 2014) the honor goes to the white Japanese plum behind the house (Prunus mume), which starting blooming yesterday, December 30--quite early for this plant. It typically blooms in the second or third week of January. In 2012, it bloomed on January 14. In 2011, it bloomed earlier than usual, on January 4. It bloomed on January 19 in 2010 and on January 21 in 2009. I don't seem to have a record for 2013.