Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms—White Flowering Plum

I've been lazy so far this year about recording the first blooms of the year in the garden, but I did note the date the white flowering plum in the side yard starting blooming—January 14. Although this tree began blooming on December 30 one year, it normally starts blooming around the second week of January. January 14 is a typical date. 

Elsewhere in the garden, miniature cyclamen (Cyclamen coum) and camellias are in bloom, as are a smattering of other winter-blooming flowers (candytuft and mustard mostly). Daffodils are on the way. Spring will not be too far away, but much-needed rain forecast in the coming days will slow things down a bit. Looking forward to the rain. The more the better. 

Plants I'm Growing: In the Garden (January 2016)

I'm always happy to see flowers blooming mid-winter. Our camellia (Camellia sasanqua, a variety called "Chansonette"), which reliably starts blooming as winter comes on (sometimes as early as early October) is finished, but we have a white flowering plum, a dwarf cyclamen (Cyclamen coum), and Manzanitas blooming now. Especially pretty among the Manzanitas is Arctostaphylos pajaroensis, which I sought out for its pink blossoms and orange-tinged new foliage. The cyclamen started blooming on or about January 15 this year. The flowering plum is in full bloom.

 

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 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.

Plants I'm Growing: Outliers (December 25, 2012)

Recently I noticed a couple of plants in the garden blooming earlier than usual. First blooms on the dainty little cyclamen Cyclamen coum under the Japanese maple at the back of the house opened the day before yesterday (December 23). This is usually the first flower to bloom each year. Typically the earliest buds open in the first week of January. They bloomed on December 23 also in 2010 (which I counted as 2011), so this is not unprecedented, but on January 8 in 2009 and January 3 in 2010, so still earlier than usual (photo above).

The white flowering plum (Prunus mume) began blooming on December 21 or so, which is considerably earlier than usual. This plant bloomed on January 4, 2011, January 19, 2010, and January 20, 2009. Perhaps early because of all the rain this year?