Back on 17th October I began what was intended to be a photo diary of awakening buds and their shoots. Naturally that one tree I specifically picked out refused to cooperate any further and has since died (no green sap any more).

On 12th November I picked out another still-dormant tree as its replacement. It then proceeded to also just sit there going nowhere. With no more candidates left, I wrote off this Bud Diary exercise for the year.

We are now well into December, when trees are typically flowering and fruiting vigourously, so imagine my complete surprise to discover one little shoot on this tree, and an even tinier one just emerging at the trunk tip!

In mid-December! This is beyond crazy.

Some younger trees this year have been very slow to respond to seasonal cues, and I suspect it is this all over again. The same never-ending overcast skies, with unseasonal low day temperatures and really cold night temperatures just have to be sending confusing signals, and some trees just can’t cope as well as others. The original tree chosen for the Bud Diary was so obviously coming out of dormancy, yet something happened (or perhaps, didn’t) during ecodormancy and it is now dead.

I’ve lost a cherry blossom too — two equally tall, equally old, equally planted Kanzan close to each other —  one burst all over with flowers but barely any leaves followed, while the other hardly blossomed at all but is covered in leaves. The one with no leaves looks completely dead, bar its strongest, thickest, tallest upright branch which still has green sap and with quite healthy-looking terminal buds. But those appear in suspended animation and if they burst now it will be a miracle.

Same deal with the Kaempferia rotunda as mentioned in that earlier post —  flowers and leaves appearing together, which is never supposed to happen (and long-lasting flowers at that), or no flowers and straight into leaves.

But anyway, having skipped spring completely, we are full-bore into summer now with summer temperatures and clear blue skies, and hopefully this second jujube tree rsponds accordingly and continues to grow with what is left of this season.