Yesterday morning my high/low thermometer recorded 23 degrees (-5 C). I have been afraid of this, as many fruit trees had already blossomed out and and a hard frost destroys the blooms, ergo no fruit this year. Fortunately the apples haven’t come out yet, but they are getting cranked up and unless we get some cooler weather they will arrive early this year also. Our average last frost is May 7th, so we have lots of potential for frost yet.
I had a pear tree and a peach tree in full bloom. I haven’t walked up the hill to check them out yet, but I am pessimistic. I have two peaches and they bloom one after the other, so maybe one of them will make it.
I have two varieties of bush cherries. The Nanking had already bloomed and dropped its petals before the freeze. You can see the little pollinized cherries had started to form, thanks to the bees and pollinating wasps that had been working them. As of last night they were still green so will probably be viable. It is the period from just before they open until they start to form little fruits that the trees are vulnerable to frost.
The Hanson cherries were showing bud break and color, and the night before the freeze I noted that the next day the early blooms would open, a few per cent of them. Sure enough after the freeze some did open and I checked their centers which didn’t turn brown. As most hadn’t opened yet, I am hopeful they will make it yet. Maybe cherry blossoms are naturally better at taking some frost than other fruits, because I know apples will take damage even if not quite open. The staggered timing of the blooms opening will also be a survival trait for the cherries.
There was definitely some casualties, as the variegated ivy that had started to grow was brown by evening. The butterfly bushes had a lot of emerged foliage and that is all wilted. It shouldn’t affect the bloom as that is not until August.
Most notable was the forsythia. My wife and I had been mentioning to each other how brilliant the color in the forsythia had been this record setting high temperature spring weather. Later she told me another gardener had made the same comment to her.
That is a bit subjective, and after a long gray winter forsythia with its blaze of yellow always is spirit lifting and seems bright, but for some reason it seemed especially bright this spring.
Although it was still yellow, by afternoon it was noticeable that the chroma had been sucked out of it. This morning, out feeding sunflowers to the birds in the last moments before dawn, it almost has a faint browning to them. Oh well, we had a great display that lasted about ten days and we are grateful for that, and it may continue for a while yet, but that intensity is gone. Faded as my youth.
View From a New Vrindaban Ridge 
March 28, 2012 at 9:01 pm
Is this possibly the price paid for a mild winter? I lost the bloom on my flowering Magnolia…before I had a chance to snap some photographs. So far my Barlett pears are still in bloom, as well as 2 peach trees (which I was told years ago were butter-peach trees. Not clear on that, but they yield a small, plum sized fruit more suitable for rendering into peach butter than eaten straight from the tree). My red-delicious apples both succumbed to a lightning bolt last year, and my beloved Elderberry has given up the ghost too, but I’m not certain why.
By chance, would you know what nutrient if typically deficient in an area that used to produce in abundance (garden veggies) but will no longer produce (same plot that has been over-farmed throughout the years). I’ve tried cow manure and compost, but to no avail. I believe I was told at one point that lack of lime is the culprit, but memory is on the wane.
March 29, 2012 at 7:52 am
this is naturally foresty and forests are acidic nature. It is common to have to reapply lime to bring a garden more into suitable pH range. Get your soil tested. You can do it yourrself with pH strips I have been told, and saw a good video on Youtube how to do it, I have samples ready to test myself as I write this.
the soils heree are also low in phosphate. Raock phospahte is essentially a designer lime which helps a bit with pH.
March 30, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Thanks Gosh!
hari bol!