Date by which 100 plants flower fluctuates wildly

Yesterday was lovely, and the Phactors ate dinner on the patio with friends.  The center piece was a Caesar salad with fresh romaine lettuce and a dynamite home made salad dressing (a Sheila Lukins cookbook recipe). Two dark pink tree peonies were in flower as well as the one flower the squirrels did not eat was open on the big-leafed magnolia.  One of the metrics TPP keeps is the date by which the first 100 plants in our gardens flowers (out of pretty close to 300 flowering plants). This year the 100th plant was magnolia vine (Schisandra chinensis, a basal angiosperm!).  The database is now in its fifth year and the total lack of a pattern or trend or consistency is quite evident.  In 2012, the 100th plant flowered on March 25th. Sorry, this isn't intended to mock readers waiting for the ice to melt out of the Bay of Fundy. Last year the 100th plant to flower wasn't reached until May 5th, and this year it was on May 7th!  So in just 5 years of data the earliest and latest date on which the 1st 100 plants flowered differs by 43 days!  Welcome to a continental climate folks - highly variable, highly changeable. Now we be needing some rain, and please without any twisters.

Forcing taxonomy

Things are slowly greening up, but my taxonomy class needs more flowering specimens.  So TPP will have to resort to more forcing, that is, bringing nearly in flower specimens into the glasshouse to hurry them along.  And no, not the other kind of forcing where as a colleague of mine used to say, "I'll teach them (fill-in-the-blank) even if I have to tear their heads off and pour it in."  Actually with new learning technologies, microchips can be implanted thus eliminating the necessity of re-attaching the heads. Has anyone ever forced fragrant sumac into flower? No? And who would do so?  Well, we'll see how that goes.  Spicebush looks very close so forcing should work.  Elms are cooperating, but none are close by. Hepatica in my gardens is showing flower buds, but out in nature it'll still be one or two weeks from flowering. Hellebore flowers are opening so that will help. An example of TPP's desperation is checking out dandelions and mustardy weeds on the south sides of buildings to see how the buds are developing. Come on!  Come on! Imagine the thrill to find a star magnolia growing in a protected courtyard that is almost in flower! 

Garden Flowering Log - September

No question that as the days get shorter and the nights cooler (still haven't had two cats on the bed temps), the gardening season is winding down and it doesn't look like the Phactors' gardens are quite going to make the 300 plants flowered threshold that Mrs. Phactor had so hoped for. September flowering has added another 12 plants bringing the total plants flowering to 273 for the season, and that doesn't count the orchid and non-hardy azalea that flowered while hanging outside, which while perennials would be pretty cheaty because they aren't garden plants.
Sept 2 - Fall Clematis

Sept 4 - Porcelain Vine

Sept 5 - Japanese anemone

Sept 9 - Fall sedum

Sept 10 - Wood aster, Turtlehead

Sept 11 - Plumose goldenrod

Sept 16 - Showy goldenrod

Sept 18 - New England aster, Toadlily

Sept 20 - Late white Joe Pyeweed

Sept 22 - Lady in Black aster

Garden flowering log – April

OK, someone did comment that keeping a garden flowering log seemed like a lot of work, and the Phactor chided them for a lack of commitment. To be honest, who knew how big of a project this would be, and the log data has been kept to the minimum by only recording the 1st date of flowering. So the results for the month of April were a bit of a surprise. To recap, 17 different plants flowered in our gardens during March; 113 plants flowered during April! Not every variety was counted as a different plant especially if they co-flowered, so at the variety level the total would be much greater. Here’s the list by date:
April 1 – a species tulip (no fooling!), late daffodils
Apr. 2 – Korean azalea, Nanking cherry, star magnolia
Apr. 3 – spring beauty, celandine poppy, species tulip(2nd), marsh marigold, Labrador violet, common violet, grape hyacinth, variegated sedge
Apr. 4 – rue anemone, Dutchman’s breeches, yellow upright ginger (Saruma henryi), Japanese maples
Apr. 5 – anise magnolia (M. salicifolia), Brunnera, bellwort, white trout lily
Apr. 6 - rhododendron (“PJM”), prairie trillium, sugar maple, hackberry, flowering quince, tulip magnolia, creeping Charlie
Apr. 7 – bleeding heart, red bud, june berry
Apr. 8 – Mukdenia, golden corydalis
Apr. 9 – red barrenwort, nodding trillium (T. flexipes)
Apr. 10 – species tulip (3d), wild ginger
Apr. 11 – apples, red trillium (T. erectum), blue cohosh, rhododendron “Ramapo”, Burkwood viburnum, saucer magnolia, Ohio buckeye, yellow archangel (deadnettle)
Apr. 13 – fothergilla, fragrant sumac, Carolina silver bells, flowering crabapples, Mazus reptans, species tulip (4th), giant bugle (Ajuga reptans), Siberian bush pea
Apr. 14 – blueberry, pin & burr oaks, lilac, yellow barrenwort, magnolia vine (Schisandra chinensis), red buckeye
Apr. 15 – jack in the pulpit, Solomon’s seal, orange-flowered avens, prairie smoke, strawberry, small bugle, late tulips, spicy lights & blue gem rhododendron, lily of the valley
Apr. 16 – Flowering dogwood, fern-leafed peony, Herbert rhododendron
Apr. 17 – dwarf Iris
Apr. 18 - bird’s foot violet
Apr. 19 - crested Iris
Apr. 20 – Jacob’s ladder, star of Bethlehem, wild Geranium, tree peonies (white & diverse shades of pink)
Apr. 21 – wild columbine, large-flowered speedwell, American holly, cult. columbine, red choke berry
Apr. 22 – spring cult. anemone, wild hyacinth
Apr. 24 – miterwort, mulberry
Apr. 25 – large white trillium, soapwort, may apple, early deutzia, poet’s narcissus
Apr. 27 – smoke bush, bridal wreath spirea, golden lights & rosebud rhododendrons
Apr. 29 – false Solomon’s seal
Apr. 30 – yellow tree peony, large-leafed rhododendrons, sun rose (Helianthemum), black walnut, pussytoes, cat mint, ragwort, Carolina spicebush, sweet cicely, black raspberry, cult. geraniums, Tartarian honeysuckle, euonymus