City Brad - Country Brad (Bradford Pear)

City Pear

Country Pear

Bradford Pear / Country Pear  3/19 - 3/22 (2010)

Not sure why the citified Bradford Pears of the city and town are all round (they certainly aren't pruned) or if the country Pear is a different sub-species... (many are not as tall or full as this specimen)... But countrified pear are ussually ragged on the edges, and may be far less dense.  They also seem to bloom a day or two earlier than the in city pears.  Not sure why.

Snapshot (Repost) - Cream to Green

Bradford Pear, Cream to Green

Southern Oak Catkins

a mountain Maple type going to seed

Red Maple, going to seed

Mountain Maple, or Beach Maple going to seed


Snapshot Week 10: 3/8-3/14 - Cream to Green (Repost 2009)

Note: It appears we are about a week behind last year in the bloom cycle, so this should give a sense of what we will see this week (3/22/2010  with the Brads just now gowing green.)

The great revolution this week was only visible to the highly observant. A vast spreading but as yet largely unrealized green is sneaking into every blade and branch. The overall impact when looking at the woods is still one of brush and bone, but there are signs that these too are ready to rage.

This week was cool (COLD) and wet, hence many things stayed kind of like they were last week. The brads are still holding bloom though waxing green. I expect them to go fully limon during the week of March 15.

The maple too are in revolution, as the Silver-tip, the Red, and various Mountain Maple types are in full seed force. (Only the Sugar Maples appear to hold back, not even given to flower.)

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Many of the Oaks, including the Southern Red and various water oaks are putting out catkins (a brown-green floral worm). Still, I have to see any catkin action on the massive Pin Oaks or various White oaks, many of which hold fall brown.

Other action: Saturday, March 14th marked the first day of the Wye Mountain Daffodil fest.

Lots of Henbit and lawn flower activity.

The overall effect was one of wet, green under surge.

Oops, almost forgot. HUGE week for the Red Bud, Peach, and Plum. Will post a Redbud page later this week.

Other things still seen:

Clatonia - everywhere

forsythia/japonica blooms (mixed with green)

roange berries (harder to see as the world greens)

Snaptshot Week 9: 3/1-3/7 BIG BRADS

REPOST from last year, 3/1-3/7 2009


I am posting this again for a point of comparison.  We have just achieved this same state of full-balledness on the Bradford Pear this March 16, 2010 of this year.  So it looks like the clock of Spring is about one week to 10 days behind the bloom cycle of last year.



And this year the Japanese Mags are doing just fine!
a week behind.

Egg-on-a-stick, Bradford Pear

This week jettisoned us from the last (?) of winter to fully revved spring. Sunday and Monday morning (March 1 and 2) gave us temperatures in the twenties, which in turn deeply bruised the Japanese Magnolia, the trumpeters of Spring. By the end of the week we were pushing short sleeve shirts and 70 degrees.


Wounded Japanese Magnoia


The week was dominated by the presence of the Bradford Pear, which in the course of a week went from blossoming bones to full egg-son-a-stick flourish, and are -- as of end of week, starting to soften into pastel green. This week too, showcased the explosion of Red Maple, as they break into molten seed. To be honest, I had been puzzled by the identity of certain maples. No longer. The red maples announce themselves with great carmen force. Our sugar maples have yet to put out as much as a flower, but the blooming silver tips, mountain and beach maple types (see Maple page) tend to bloom then go to seed in muted tones of rust, straw, and olive. I also fully took in something I have seen, but not really cataloged. The maples appear to put on their spring garb in a pulse. First the maples build from colored tips to budding flower. As the flowers fade they also build into a stamen flourish. Then the stamens wither, and the whole tree appears to lose mass, going “backward” to an earlier winter look… then the withered floral parts explode in days, into large helicopter seed clumps.

Other activity at a glance:



Garden daffodils all over town
Forsythia and Japonica in full flourish, growing “green”
Cherry and Peach in light full flourish. (These appear to emerge just a few days after the Brads)
Elm trees, with heavy green mass (some of which may be floral)
Henbit, and that which is not henbit, in large patches.

As of yet unnamed ground and lawn flowers in thick patches. (See Lawn Dainties)

A yet unamed bush/shrub, with minature pear-like flowers and spikes woven in the wood.

(Unamed "snow" shrub, with pear-ish blooms and thorns)

First activity among the oaks, though a Huge Southern Red at the Capitol is leading the catkin pack. Fist showing of a Redbud tree. (Expect to see these break out next week

Many of the smaller White and Pin Oaks still with leaf.

"Roange" berry things continue leafless, and scattered along the highways.

"Rorange Berry"

Bradford Pear

It won't be too many months and I''ll be posting more of these, covered in white flowers. Bradford Pears are one of the last trees to take to color (late November, into December) and one of the first trees to break out in floral bloom (Late Feb/March) - in which they look like huge white eggs. As Pear trees go, the fruit is something of a bust. About the size of cherry and bitter. You'd have to be pretty hungry, and with a stout stomach!

Cherry (Guest Contribution): Emily Boyd-Flora

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Today's images of the Cherry come courtesy of floral photographer Emily Boyd-Flora, taken mid March in Springdale Arkansas. What strikes me about these images is the similarity of these blossoms to those of the Bradford Pear( bottom). Indeed, many of our editable tree fruits (apple, pear, cherry, peach produce a similar five petaled bloom. Of course, what makes the cherry bloom so special - wedding white. (that against piercing blues skies is a thing to behold.) The Brad, by contrast comes in heavy cream.


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Bradford Pear (Similitude)

Snapshot Week 8: 2/22 -2/28 Maple Force

file: Johnquils



Red-Maple flowerette





File: Japanese Magnolia

Japanese Magnolia of the stubby branch, second variety





file: Wild Pear (Bradford?)




Snapshot:

1)The lacy smaller Jonquil made a showing, while the the larger big daffodils are poking up.


2)The Silver Tip and Mountain Maples continue in full flower, though I have yet to see a whisper from the larger Sugar Maples.


3/4) Japanese Magnolia varieties 1 and 2 in full force at the Arkansas State Capitol. Variety 2 is a little later blooming with shorter pedals, found on short stubby branches.


5) Tuesday/Wednesday 24/25 - I noticed the first wild Pear in bloom (these may be Bradfords, but they are less shaped than the store bought variety. Thursday morning (2/26) Brads started opening in Little Rock. The trees started blooming in mass between 10 Am and 2PM. Really. Followed by a similar cycle a day later in Conway. (The quick flash bloom seems to have slowed given colder temps into the weekend.

Other activity:

Yellow forsythia (sp)
Pink Japonica

Snapshot Week 6: 2/8-2/14 First Spring

Japanese Magnolia. 2/12 -2/13. They were not open the morn of the 13th but were by 11AM that same day.

Henbit 2/13

White Clover 2/13

Bradford Pear 2/13

I'm afraid I may not be able to keep track this next week. The place looks like it is about to explode.