Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Pink Flowering Plum and "Noyo Dream" Rhododendron

I've been keeping track of the first flowering of many plants in the garden for about eight years now. I have analyzed the data to see if the flowering period of plants are shifting, which was my original intent in creating a kind of botanical calendar, but the Rhododendron "Noyo Dream" bloomed today, which seems very early. Usually this plant blooms in February or even early March. For example, "Noyo Dream" bloomed on February 25 in 2009, on February 7 in 2010, on February 2 in 2011, and March 2 in 2012.

On January 13, the first blossoms opened on the pink flowering plum alongside the house. Today both this plum and the white plum on the other side of the house are in full bloom and buzzing with bees.

Plants I'm Growing—First blooms: Pink Flowering Plum (February 13, 2017)

Our pink flowering plum with double flowers started blooming yesterday, February 13, 2017. This is Prunus blireiana. This tree always blooms in the first half of February, having bloomed on the 15th (2009), the 4th (2011), the 2nd (2012), the 15th (2013), the 3rd (2015), and the 5th (2016). I don't have dates for 2010 or 2014. This year the birds left the buds alone, so it looks like we'll have a tree full of flowers. In some past years, sparrows and House Finches have eaten the buds before they bloomed.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms—Pink Flowering Plum, Golden Currant, "Dapple Dandy" Pluot

I belatedly report on some of the plants that have recently started blooming in the garden. February 5 brought the first blooms this year on the pink flowering plum behind the house (Prunus blireana) on the golden currant bush (Ribes aureum). The pluot "Dapple Dandy" (top) began blooming on February 11 this year.

"Dapple Dandy" bloomed on February 5, 15, 4, 2, 23, and 3 in 2009 to 2014, so a first bloom date of February 11 is neither early nor late.

The plum has bloomed on February 17, 11, 2, and 15 in past years, so February 5 is on the early side but within the normal range.

The golden currant has bloomed as early as February 10 (in 2011) and as late as March 5 (2013), so a first bloom date of February 5 is somewhat earlier than usual.

Plants I'm Growing: White Flowering Plum (December 22, 2014)

The white flowering plum tree (Prunus mume) behind the house and the tiny cyclamen, Cyclamen coum, are always the first plants to bloom in the new year (I count late December flowers in the following calendar year). This year the plum began blooming on December 22,  just before Christmas. It is wonderfully fragrant. I love the scent as much as the blossoms. The little  cyclamen--the flower stalks stand only about 3 inches high--began blooming on December 30. Happy New Year.

Plants I'm Growing: First Bloom--Pink Flowering Plum (February 15, 2013)

I belatedly note here that the pink flowering plum behind the house (Prunus blireiana) started blooming this year on February 15, which is within the range of its first blooming in the past. The tree bloomed on February 15 also in 2009, on February 4 in 2011, and on February 2 in 2012. I don't have a record for 2010, but it looks like the tree blooms early in February one year, the middle of the year the next. I expect it will bloom around February 3 in 2014. We'll see. The flowers are few again this year, as the sparrows and finches in the garden have eaten most of the buds. 

Plants I'm Growing: Pink Flowering Plum--Prunus Mume (January 24, 2013)

I belatedly note that the pink flowering plum at the front of the house started blooming on January 20. This little tree has been suffering from an infestation of scale, so it produced very few buds, but the buds that are there have mostly opened. The white plum (same species, Prunus mume) is now pretty much in full bloom.