Date the 100th plant flowered

It been a pretty average spring so far; maybe just a bit dry. Yesterday the 100th plant flowered, not the 100th individual plant, but the 100th different type of plant, mostly different species. So 100 different plants flowered by April 28th. Since beginning this data gathering a lot of plants have come and gone, so it isn't the same species list, but let's assume it hasn't been biased toward one direction or the other. The earliest the 100th plant flowered was March 25th in 2012, an exceptionally early spring. The latest the 100th plant flowered was May 5th in 2013 and 2014.  In 2010 the 100th plant flowered on April 21st and in 2011 if was on April 29th. TPP is struggling to get all this data out of notebooks and into a nice data base, but it isn't easy and is time-consuming. Things are listed in a goofy mix of common and scientific names, plus bloody cultivars and hybrids, and that takes time to sort out. Some people find it hard to believe that our gardens contain so many different plants. And things do surprise us at times. Last year a new Erythronium x "Pagoda" grew quite well and a nice display was expected this spring, but thus far it's a no show. So what happened? Don't know.

Interesting flowering data

Data from our garden flowering log shows some interesting patterns.  Here's one.  So far 2013 has been above average wet and below average in temperature, and in general flowering has lagged behind and seemed late, especially last month.  However, the 200th different plant to flower event occurred this year on June 2nd.  Looking back to 2010 and 2011, the same event occurred on June 1st and June 2nd.  Everything sort of averaged out to provide a sort of benchmark of flowering consistency, and this includes various DNFs (did not flower), a few new additions, and some cancellations (deaths).  No surprise deaths and new additions tend to balance our; when something dies you replace it either in kind or with some new magnolia.  Not much of a choice really.  However, you probably noticed that 2012 was not mentioned.  Last year the 200th flowering event occurred on May 10th!  That's three weeks earlier.  Amazing.  This means that just about two-thirds of our flowering events happen by Memorial Day.  That's a shady perennial garden for you.  So that garden tour scheduled for June 16th can expect shade and not much else.  TPP will make them a list of what they've missed.  So why schedule a garden tour for June?  Well, those petunia and impatiens gardeners have to get their little annuals planted.  What kind of garden is that?  You can bet those gardens don't even have a magnolia. 

Spring flowering - 2012 & 2013

Spring 2012 was quite bizarre, and while spring 2013 is decidedly late, it's closer to the norm than was 2012.  Yesterday's post snow storm warming resulted in late crocus, aconite, and Iris reticulata popping into bloom as well as the culmination of a very long prelude of hybrid hellebores. This brings the total number of flowering events for our estate to 8 as of March 28th.  Last year the unseasonably warm weather pushed spring flowering along so fast that 92 flowering events had taken place by the same date!  That like 1/3 of everything in our gardens, before April 1st!  2012 was totally out of whack.  In 2010 and 2011 the number of flowering events by 3/28 was 10 and 11 (aconite was new in 2011 accounting for the difference).  Lots of plants are just waiting for a bit of real spring weather: American filbert, numerous bulbs, Abeliophyllum, Cornus mas, Forsythia, Helleborus niger.  And of course the early spring garden work is behind schedule too, but the cold frame crops will be planted this weekend, which is just about normal (~April 1th) for around here.  This also means that the beginning of field season is just around the corner too.  Hope someone burns TPP's prairie! 

2012 Garden Log

This is the 3d year TPP has kept a garden flowering log for all perennials.  Rather than bore everyone with a month by month run down, this year only the year end summary will be foisted upon you.  Here's the summary data.  Flowering in 2012 started on Feb. 18th (snowdrops, witchhazel), an unusually early spring in comparison to 2011 (Mar. 11) and 2020 (Mar. 1).  2012 also extended the flowering season until Oct. 28th when a black snakeroot finally flowered a few days after the monk's hood (Oct. 25th).  Last year the last flowering was Oct. 21st, the monk's hood,.just 4 days earlier.  In 2010 our gardens had 275 different perennials flower.  In 2011 there were 293 different perennials that flowered (and we group many varieties based on their seasons, so this is closer to species than varieties.).  In 2012 in spite of the heat and drought in June and July, 283 perennials flowered, but that includes 17 new perennials, so there werequite  a few no-shows and a couple of deaths.  The increase from 2011 to 2012 was largely due to new plantings and some woody plants coming of reproductive age.  If plants recover next year, the number of flowering perennials may break the 300 barrier.  Winter now seems constrained to a little less than three months: December, January, and early February.  Today was a lovely November day, with a high of about 54 F, and the petunias in the window boxes are still flowering although we have had a few real freezing nights.  Having planted quite a number of new trees and shrubs to landscape the rennovated lily pond. The Phactors had little choice but to water or lose these new plants, not without some significant cost.  Fortunately the water situation was such that watering was possible.  All of these newbies look like they will survive, but a dwarf mountain laurel has us worried.  In general flowering was not as poor as might be expected considering the severity of the summer.  A very early and quite warm spring pushed some spring perennials though flowering very quickly: bloodroot emerged, flowered, and way done in just 3 days.  More analysis will have to wait until the data is entered into the data base and analyzed in more detail.

March is over, no fooling! Here's the data.

After this year's March, the Phactor wonders what May will bring.  What's that old saying, "April showers bring May flowers."  That won't happen this year because as best can be determined, nothing will be left to flower.  Now this is one of the problems with data, you actually have numbers not just some feeling that things are flowering earlier this year.  In both 2010 and 2011 17 different plants flowered in our gardens.  Now let's check the 2012 data, hmm, let's see, oh yes, 100 plants flowered!!!  Yes that includes about 6 new plants, but 4 or 5 from previous years did not flower (like the anise magnolia - darn!).  Now 2011 averaged 10-15 days later than 2010, but the plants presently flowering, e.g., red buckeye and everything that follows below, flowered between April 15 and May 8 in the last 2 years. 
Here's what has flowered so far, in sequence, a mixture of names and formality.  
witchhazel, snowdrops, early crocus, late crocus, aconite, hellebore hybrids, scilla, tiny crocus sp., American filbert, Iris reticulata, dwarf daffodils, lungwort, cornelian cherry, standard daffodils, Helleborus niger, European filbert, abeliophyllum, glecoma hederacea, vinca minor, spicebush, bloodroot, forsythia, Japanese pachysandra, Korean azalea, Nanking cherry, kaufmanni tulip, pieris, winterhazel, spring beauty, star magnolia, rue anemone, grape hyacinth, pjm rhododendron, tulip magnolia, pushkinia, tulip sp., tulip bakeri, bluebells, redbud, flowering quince, sessile trillium, common violet, celandine poppy, Labrador violet, hyacinth, brunnera, saucer magnolia, sugar maple, late daffodils, bleeding hearts, service berry, yellow archangel, epimedium yellow, pear, flowering crag, fothergilla, golden corydalis, nodding trillium, jacob's ladder, marsh marigold, hackberry, white trout lily, varigated sedge, kerria, wild ginger, tulip tarda, hepatica, akebia, Siberian bush pea, yellow ginger, magnolia vine, mahonia, prairie trillium, red trillium, Carolina silver bells, currants, clue cohosh, red buckeye, fragrant sumac, pawpaw, bellwort, lilac, tulip sp., epimedium red, phlox divaricata, crabapple, mulberry, spicy light azalea, American holly, flowering dogwood, oaks (3 sp.), shooting stars, tree peony (white), giant ajuga, european ginger, blueberry, strawberry, blackhaw viburnum, Narcissus poeticus.  
So with so much warm weather in March, the sequence of flowering has not been much changed, but the duration of flowering has been much foreshortened.  Bing, bang, boom, and done.  What is really amazing about this, is that the Phactors had about 285 plants flowering last year and 275 the year before that.  So more than one-third of our total for the whole season are in flower or flowered in March.  One-third!  So what's left for May given that most of the things that flower in May will flower in April.  So nothing to do but look forward to my soon to flower Aprilapple.  Is this what we have to look forward to if our climate is warming?  And along with the warmth, it's much dryer than normal too.  This is most disturbing, and should we have a late hard frost, something neither unlikely or unknown for early April, a lot of plants are toast.  Last time that happened, the magnolia vine froze back to the ground.