A Snowy April Bloom Day

We've gone from 75 to 25 in 48 hours. The last 25 degrees was lost very quickly this morning in a cold rain that changed over to sleet. We won't discuss the current wind chill.

Will the faint pinkish white blooms of the Serviceberry tree in the top left make it through the cold?  Flowers that open in 75 don't often make it through 25. Bloom seasons get shortened.

I didn't get far from the front porch for long today. I can see the daffodils blooming out there. Even the daffodils once touched by 75 are more prone to becoming toast in sudden freezes. Their resistance to cold gets baked out of them.

Japanese Maples are wimps by comparison. They leaf out too soon and get zapped on a regular basis. Gardy doesn't often baby things, but I had some frost cloth intended for other purposes and went ahead and covered the maple up.

Today for Bloom Day, all the flowers are fine.

I stepped out after the transition from rain to sleet when it was still 32 degrees

And covered the two other teeny tiny Japanese Maples, both of which have already been spring frozen twice because Gardy doesn't baby things. I'm not even sure if the grafted top of this maple is still viable. The tiny trunk looks girdled from last spring's freeze, but the few remaining branches had broken bud and started to grow. A sliver of cambium connection that could regrow may remain. It has one last chance before I let the rootstock take over.

Will the daffodils still be fine after this freezing cold Bloom Day? How will the leafed out Heptacodium miconioides fair? It always leafs out early too, but seems to take the late freezes more in stride than the Japanese Maples.

A pretty daffodil in the freezing rain.

And the best bloom I have gotten on the Bleeding Heart so far. Three nice bloom stems this year.

It was spring and now it's not. The wild cultivated gardens will grow on. This I know from bitter cold experience.

Some where out there someone is having a warmer Bloom Day. Miss Carol's Bloom Day directory will take you there.