Spring Snow

Weather: Snow Monday, low temperatures Wednesday.

Last snow: 4/13. Week’s low: 15 degrees F. Week’s high: 76 degrees F in the shade.

What’s blooming in the area: Apples, flowering quince, Siberian elms, donkey spurge, moss phlox

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Alfilerillo, western stickseeds, tansy and purple mustards, common and native dandelions.

Dandelions are particularly aggressive this year. I picked nine blooms and buds off one plant this morning. I don’t know if it was the warm spring or winds last year, or both, but they’ve filled every space in my beds reserved for seeds. They bloom along the shoulders, and have turned a number of yards into yellow seas.

What’s blooming in my yard: One type of fruiting crab apple, daffodils, grape hyacinth, vinca, wintered-over pansy

Last year I wanted blue pansies and all that were offered in the early spring were mixed colors. I didn’t want yellow and didn’t buy any. Then, in late May, the local hardware got some six-packs of single colored pansies. When all the blue ones came into blue, there was one yellow among them. It was the only one that lasted the entire summer, and wintered over to mock me again this week.

What’s emerging: Hostas, lilies of the valley, perennial four o’clock

Tasks: For the first time in years, I have no major projects to complete this spring, and I’ve been able to cut dead stems in places that normally don’t get trimmed until mid-summer. I’ve never seen my daffodils bloom, except through the bars of old David phlox stems.

Animal sightings: Chickadees and other small birds, bumble bees, hornets, sidewalk ants. Crows have been especially noticeable this spring as they fly overhead.

Weekly update: New Mexico’s spring reverted to its natural pattern after weeks of very warm weather that brought fruit trees into bloom early. I don’t know if the snow and ensuing cold killed the incipient apricots and peaches, but it certainly destroyed the cherries for this year.

The only leaves that were killed were the ones on the newly planted forsythia. All the others survived. Fortunately, the tender ones like catalpas and grapes hadn’t emerged yet.

What is always interesting is flower buds. If they’re closed when conditions degenerate, then they continue to open, but if they’ve begun to expand they turn brown. Thus, apples were beginning to bloom in local orchards on Friday.

I have three types of crab apples. The white-flowered fruiting ones were blooming, and now are nothing but leaves. The pink-flowered fruiting ones had only begun to open, and now are in full bloom.

The pink-flowered tree that’s supposed to be fruitless was in full-bloom when the snows landed. Leaves were above them, and most survived the snow, but not the morning when the temperature plunged to 15 degrees F.

Today, the buds that hadn’t opened are blooming. They’re not particularly visible, but they did attract a bumble bee.

Notes on photographs: Profusion flowering crab apple that grows near the house.
1. 13 April 2020, when the snow fell in the night.
2. 14 April 2020, after the snow melted.
3. 15 April 2020, after the temperature dropped to 15.