Sunday, March 27, 2011

bloom calendar / spring markers

                                    2009               2010              2011
                              Day of Year    Day of Year    Day of Year
Bradford Pear                 65                 79                   60
Carpenter Bees              68                 87                   72
Acer palmatum leaf out  73                 92                   77
Flowering Dogwood       80                 93                   80
Asian Wisteria                83                 96                   81
Carolina Cherry Laurel   73                 97                   83

In Atlanta, the arrival of the 2011 spring markers are remarkably similar to 2009.   So, as not to color my 2011 observations, I have intentionally not reviewed my old journal notes......too much.  Picking "the date" for these spring markers requires more patience and discipline than I am always prepared to apply.  Naturally, I want to escape winter and embrace spring.....ticking-off the entire spring marker list during one warm day.   My journal contains spring marker dates which sometimes appear in different months.  So, the dates are converted to day-of-year to make the comparison between years easier.

I speculate that this year, enthusiastic yard clean-up has made it less obvious to spot the arrival of the invasive Asian Wisteria bloom near "my local" coffee shop. My wood deck is a dependable habitat for those territorial wood nibblers (a.k.a. carpenter bees) who emerge/return to same piece of lumber each year.  For example, the carpenter bee arrival are observations only recorded in my backyard....another self imposed rule to my scheme.

1 comment:

Cassandra said...

Good info! I'm botanically challenged.