Almost Everything Is Blooming

April 6, 2010: Despite all the tourism propaganda, spring in DC is often short lived. We are too soon hot. We go from daytime highs in the 50s and 60s to the 80s, neverly lingering in the 70s. Usually there is a steady progression of blooms. The world famous Cherry Blossoms are April 1, more or less, but it is often cold and rainy, more winter than spring. Then follow crab apples, red bud, lilacs, dogwoods, azaleas and rhododendrons. DC is great for daffodils, hyacinths and early tulips but so harsh for late tulips that they are really annuals rather than perennials.

This year everything is blooming seemingly all at once. The Cherry Blossoms beat the US Park Service bloom predictions by a week and the crab apples, red buds and lilacs are blooming before the Cherry Blossoms are gone. We are already seeing wisteria and German bearded iris, weeks too soon.

In 35 years, we've never seen a spring so early and quick. Our best guess is that the plants are reacting to the stress of last February's unusually severe snowstorms and this is aided by unseasonably warm weather. This week we have unprecedented daytime highs in the 90s!

Crab apple and German bearded iris:









Wisteria:















Our yard with phlox, grape hyacinths, tulips and late daffodils:
The blueberry and white tulips:









A red tulip and daffodils:












Our Maggie and Priscilla (l) and the feral Spock: