A couple of years ago I started a calendar dedicated to garden stuff. Each month I have written on it what I need to do that month as well as notes about what has started blooming or has stopped. So....I noticed yesterday I have some rose blooms open....this has happened on exactly the same date for the past 2 years. Another plant has the last two blooms on it....same as the last two years. The amaryllis should be open tomorrow, which would only be a day or two removed from last years bloom time. So my question....has anyone else charted this same trend with the perennials in your own garden....plants beginning to bloom on about the same day over several years? I'm really curious about this!
dell

While I am obviously not as methodical as you I checked my timing of my Amaryllis blooming this year, we are at least a month behind last year.

Hello Dell,

Awesome!!!
Yes, I kept track of the bloom times too! Glad to see I wasn't the only one who did...
Although I didn't put the dates on the calendar, I did take pics in the garden when each variety started to bloom and kept the pics organized in folders on my "desktop" so I can refer back to them at any time to reorganize or update/improve the plan for the gardens the following year. I'm able to tell exactly what day they bloomed in each folder by just clicking on properties on each pic...

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Dell, I need to be reminded where you live.

There no such fixed dates up here in New Jersey. That is not to say there isn't a pattern, because there is. We navigate around the year floating on a mozaic of natural events. As the crocus starts to bloom the whole countryside rises up in a tide of robins. The first daffodils are quickly joined by hellebores which means the little Siberian scilla is about to open. And so it goes. Thomas Jefferson kept voluminous notes on first bloom and first arrival and birders know these yearly events in their bones. Our sense of surprise reminds us that no two seasons or years are ever exactly the same and keeps us humble and captivated.

Dell I have to tell you your local hummingbird and plant buddy does not keep records of anything except the arrival of the first hummingbird of the year.

Dianne
Southeast Alabama
Heat Zone 8
Sunset Zone 31

Hello Ward,

You are always filled with wonderful insight, stuff I never knew. I certainly don't believe the blooms from year to year will be exactly the same, just relatively close...say within a week or there about...
The weather surely plays a huge factor. It's just nice to know for those of us that are still new to gardening. For me, it's only my 2nd year. It's nice to start to recognize the stages/times of various plant bloom times...beginning and ending of each. Most though will last til the 1st frost toward Fall, but I'm still learning many we have in our gardens only bloom til mid-Summer...like Shasta 'Crazy Daisy'. I'll also be planting about 45-50 different Irises this year around late July in a brand new garden. About 2/5 will be Irises, 2/5 will be Butterfly host plants, and about 1/5 will have more Hummingbird plants. The Irises I know will only bloom until about mid June...except for the few that are re-bloomers.
It will be nice to see a new variety of plants in our garden other than mainly Agastaches, Salvias, Butterfly Bushes and Honeysuckles.
I'm also planting 4 new Daylilies too...

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Ward, I'm literally just about 5 miles east from Dianne. Patricia, it's not that I'm methodical....more like desperate to figure out what the heck I am doing! ha. If I don't write it down, I'm likely to forget what I have already done! And, like Susan Louise, I've found that those pictures are invaluable to just remember where the heck I planted something the year before!

Well, see I was amazed at the blooms coming on the exact dates because I've always assumed it had more to do with the weather. Now I'm wondering if, for some plants at least, their bloom time has more to do with hours of sunlight, or maybe the angle of the suns rays? There's always something more to learn isn't there! Maybe that's what mama is doing with all those hours she sits in front of the window, lots of observing and putting all the facts together. Wish she could talk again so she could fill us in!
dell