The Spring lacing of deciduous tree foliage is about to begin in a day or two here in our Twin City landscape gardening area. It’s the time when our major evergreen conifers no longer overwhelm our winter’s six month landscape dominating the deciduous ghosts of Winter. My 60 foot Red Maple is already overwhelmed with young leaves and countless bloom clusters causing the first sign of casting its shade. A taller cottonwood, one-third of its girth on my property, is still naked in that noted jay bird style. Nature planted these behemoths before I began my landscape garden over 40 years ago.
Of my other major deciduous trees, those now already over 50 feet, I have planted a Ginkgo by seed which turned out to be a she, an Ohio Buckeye, also by seed, already about to open its bloom, and a Kentucky Coffee Tree originally planted from a size ten pot, still totally naked regarding leaf cover. The kings of these grounds are two of ten one foot tall, second year seedling White Pine I purchased in 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of our Nation. Three died before ‘grade school’, but two must be over 60 feet tall, a third over 50, and the remaining four between 30 to 40 feet, their punishment by being planted closer together than the others.
Among the more substory trees I have planted, my 30 foot Merrill Magnolia began blooming over a week ago, is still blooming, but is beginning to lose its stardom as of today…..but won’t fill out with foliage for another week or more. The fragrant Toka plum bloom opened up day before yesterday , and the Minnesota Hardy Redbuds and their seedlings old enough to show off will be in full bloom by Friday, both species leafing out after bloom. My fragrant French Lilac planted in 1975, one, as are all others advertised in the local nursery catalogs as a shrub growing up to twelve feet, surpassed 25 feet ten years ago still is in its winter mood. It’s bloom will arrive in a couple weeks.
Normally Spring lacing of our landscape large deciduous trees begins around the fifteenth of May suggesting that our Spring is two weeks earlier than the norm. The last average last frost date occurs May 10th in our part of Minnesota.
One should also remember that snow storms have occurred in May in our neighborhoods. We had a twelve inch very wet one about fifteen years ago. I’ve been praying for Minnesota warming all of my landscape gardening life, and fortunately it has come to pass. My space is somewhere around horticultural zone 4.5……The Russians claim, however, that the seventy year of warming in the Northern Hemisphere is over with Earth’s cooling trend showing signs of change for almost a decade already.
Ninety per cent of Russia lies to the North of the Twin Cities in case, dear reader, you are interested.
(Rabbits were evil nearly everywhere in our area this past winter. I suspect the city or county have killed all of the coyotes who feasted on my garden bunnies about the past ten years. I haven’t seen any fox recently either.)