Whose Spring Is This?

 

It’s been a crazy spring even before it’s officially spring. Georgians are used to having some early flowers in February, particularly in South Georgia and especially true for some of our spring ephemerals that depend on sunlight in deciduous forests. This February went too far!

I’ve been watching on Facebook the reports of blooms from around the state (plant groups are a great place to see what others are finding) and the woody blooms (trees and shrubs) have been particularly startling. Most people agree that some blooms are 3-4 weeks ahead of usual.

In my own yard, the blooms of Chickasaw plum and blueberries are about 3 weeks ahead of previous years. I wondered if the native bees would wake up in time and yes, they have. The azaleas appear to be on their normal schedule (still in bud) but the blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) is two weeks early.

While my azaleas are ‘normal,’ a friend just 10 minutes south of me sent me photos of his Piedmont azalea (Rhododendron canescens) in full bloom the last week of FEBRUARY. Normally mine bloom the first of April. I’ve seen reports of blooming serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.) in Atlanta while my plants are just barely opening their first buds. My previous photos showed serviceberry blooming the 3^rd week of March.

A friend found her first Eastern tiger swallowtail the last week of February. I saw two myself this week. Those are early as well.

Tiger swallowtails love native azaleas like this Piedmont one (R. canescens)

Columnist Margaret Renkl posted in the New York Times (link to the article here) this week about “The Beautiful and Terrifying Arrival of an Early Spring.” She shared some of her early blooms in Nashville: “Everywhere spring was unfurling its annual magnificence weeks ahead of the norm, even the recent norm. Last year I found the first spring beauty in our yard on March 10. This year it was Feb. 16. Last year the first buds on our redbud showed up on March 24. This year it was Feb. 23. Same story with the early buttercups: Last year they bloomed on March 23. This year it was Feb. 25.”

Two concerns with early blooms are the insect aspect as I mentioned (will early flowers get pollinated?) and the fear of late freeze damage. In the time I’ve lived here, we’ve had snow (12 inches!) on March 13 (1993) and a late freeze in early April 2007 that severely damaged fruit crops. That freeze introduced many of us to the concept that trees and shrubs can sprout new leaves from dormant buds. All my woody plants recovered and sprouted new leaves eventually.

In addition to the concern about insect pollination is the potential decline in wind pollination; both of which leads to reduced fruits. I saw only one oak blooming; without others blooming, will it get sufficient pollination? Plants that rely on cross pollination (blueberries, paw paws) need at least two plants blooming at the same time; with this weird spring, will that happen? We’ll have to wait and see across all these factors how pollination fared this year. Everything has a ripple effect: reduced pollination equals reduced populations of critters (small mammals and birds) that rely on those fruits and nuts and the critters (larger birds, larger mammals) that rely on those critters. Reduced fruits also mean fewer new plants as well.

It’s too soon to say this is the new normal. This year might just be an odd one and spring will return to its usual schedule next year. For now, it’s sufficient to say this is not our usual spring. We’ll have to see what comes of it.