A Late Snowfall Covers Early Blooms

By Kendra Bobowick

Tuesday’s warmth that coaxed open early crocus blooms on Main Street soon faded as winter managed to return from its sabbatical long enough to drop a covering of snow onto the pale violet petals Wednesday.

“It’s been a quirky season,” said Sharon M. Douglas, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s plant pathology department head, regarding the unusually mild winter.

Dan Holmes of Holmes Fine Gardens found himself putting up a protective deer fence around tulips emerging from soft soil at least two weeks sooner than he would have otherwise. Normally, he would not be taking such precautions, “but they were starting to show,” he said. “It’s been so warm that things are starting to pop.”

Noting the tulips — among several bulb plants beginning to grow, along with shrubbery and trees budding, he said, “It’s been crazy.” Thinking again about Mother Nature in New England, he added, “But it’s supposed to be, right?”

Putting it another way, Dr Douglas said, “It’s been an atypical winter contrasted with last year.” Noticing the signs of spring around her own backyard, she confirmed, “A lot of plants are starting to swell and color is showing in some of them…it’s an interesting year.”

With the unusually warm weather come questions from homeowners, landscapers, and arborists, asking, “What will this do?” she said.

Both she and Mr Holmes have their concerns. Dr Douglas said, “The problem is, plants only have a finite number of buds, say 100 buds on the magnolia. This may decrease the show later in the season.”

Dr Douglas added, “We don’t know if plants reached their full winter dormancy this year.” With an eye on the calendar, she said, “If we are still in winter and if it gets down to single digits or teens — a drop could potentially be a problem for the plants. That’s where we could have some damage.

“We may not lose our flowers,” she said, but a sudden plunge in temperature could damage the shoots.

Unlike shrubs and trees, Dr Douglas said, “A lot of times the daffodils or spring bulbs start to grow but can tolerate [colder] temperatures.” Wednesday’s snow was a good example of drastic shifts in the weather. Thinking of the small, three- to four-inch high snowdrops with their white drooping petals, she said, “That’s why they’re called snowdrops.”

Does Town and Country Garden Club of Newtown member Arlene Krienik think spring is early this year? “Yes indeed!” she said. She mentioned the already-blooming hellebores, daffodils, and crocuses. Wondering what will weather through Wednesday’s snow, and considering how much sun and protection the plants have in a particular garden, Ms Krienik gave away her secrets: “I plant, I pray, I plant, I pray.”

Noting the blooms opening so early this year, she said, “I am just waiting. Whatever happens, happens. You can’t fight mother nature.”

Other than daffodils and crocuses, she has noticed succulents coming up too. “I don’t know how that managed to happen. Who knows what mother nature is doing.”

Fellow club member Arline Shanley also commented on the mild winter. “We’re all wondering about the effects, but I feel nature provides!” The snowdrops, hellebores, and daffodils are “very hardy, and the first plants to show their heads anyway,” she said, and was not worried about this week’s snowy forecast. Taking her attention away from the garden, she noted another common sign of spring: “I have not seen a robin, but others have, so spring is on its way.”

The flush of early buds and sprouting bulbs are proof of “an incredibly mild winter…it’s all about the winter,” said Garden Club of Newtown member Beth Coldwell. She said, “I was at the library [February 28] and there was an army of daffodils coming up.” Not too concerned about the snowy forecast, she said, “It insulates. It’s always interesting if flowers start to come out then we have a cold spell — it’s like putting them in the cooler, they last longer.”

She added, “Forsythias look ready to pop, star magnolias are getting full; this is a treat, a reward for making it through last winter.”