The Covid pandemic has affected even the gardening world. But Mother Nature more than compensated for the pandemic by making winter deep but not very prolonged, and providing sunshine that has lingered longer and earlier. In effect, winter flowers were a tad late but the rest of the flowering world has been ahead of schedule this year, as if the plants somehow missed their respective memos, regardless of nasty Covid.
TULIPS: though late this spring, they marched in with better colors, longer blooms
And due to the Covid’s home quarantine, many people have turned to home gardening. In fact, a few are discovering their green thumbs.
The spring-blooming daffodils and the tulips, understandably, came out a week or two later because of the late winter snow snaps. But they made up for their tardiness by showing off their blooms longer and more beautifully. At least they do in the Lower Mainland of the Pacific coast of Canada and in Washington state. As a result, we enjoyed the blooms of the tulips that came in many wonderful colors – thanks to the dogged persistence of hybridizers not only in the Benelux (especially the Netherlands) countries but also of tulip propagators worldwide.
Unfortunately, the very popular annual tulip festivals in this area (notably those in Abbotsford and Chilliwack in BC and the Skagit Valley Tulip Festivals in Washington state) were nipped
in the bud – I guess pun is inevitable – by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The much-anticipated tulip festivals, which normally are month-long events were non-events this year. The tulip tourists whined as the tulip festival operators were forced to close doors and see their year’s main revenue gone in spite of their fields of colorful tulips blooming profusely, rows upon glorious rows.
It was much like the tulips were proudly holding floral concerts with no human souls to watch the extravaganza.
Aha, but the more reason gardeners enjoyed the tulips that sprung up in a great parade of colors in their OWN gardens. We did!
CHERRIES blossom for weeks at our Port Moody city hall
The cherry blossoms in this Covid year have been the best and the longest-lasting, as far as I can remember.
The sunshine more than the rain showed up in March and April. So we had such glorious weeks-long view of the majestic blooms of the cherry trees. In the past, the cherry blossoms lasted only a week and a wee bit then the rain came slapping down the petals at the blooms’ peak. This year, the clouds of cherry blossoms lasted at least two to even three weeks with hardly a shower to cut their glory unceremoniously.
In B.C. (and elsewhere in the world), people were put on “home quarantine” but that did not prevent people from driving around in their vehicles, and enjoying the cherry blossoms that lifted somehow the depressed spirits of the Covid-fearful population.
I did wonder if other people considered cherry-blossom viewing trips as essential trips. I’ve seen Facebook and Instagram friends’ posts of those heavenly clouds of mostly baby pinks, others of pinky whites or of maroon reds.
Sakura! Sakura!
Cherry blossom lovers in BC learned lessons from the sad fate of the Cherry Blossom
Festival revelers in northern Japan – the northern Japanese suffered a second wave of the Covid pandemic. With BC Chief Health Officer Bonnie Henry’s very calm but repeated reminders to stay home to stay safe, British Columbians stayed home all right. Except for some of us, our “homes” could also have four wheels, as we drove around town partaking in the sakura trees’ extravagant offering. Hey, I know I wasn’t the only one driving down the roads where the cherry blossoms were in spectacular display….
In our own backyard, the forsythias stretched their wiry arms laden with sunshiny yellows in late February. As the forsythias in our backyard started losing their flowers after two weeks, the nearby Kerria japonica waved its wands of equally yellow flowers, and the Bridal Wreath Spireas spread their spires of white flowers, yes, looking like bridal wreaths, full and bountiful.
Then our lilacs and the wisteria followed suit as if trying to keep the parade of blooms in our backyard non-stop. The duo of viburnum plicatum by our garage unfolded their layered displays of white flowers.
Hmmm, I got curious. I compared this year’s blooming times with dates on my gardening scrapbook: they have been ahead this year by almost a month of the schedule.
As if somehow to cheer up the humans quarantined indoors starting mid-March by
the Covid pandemic, the plant world has presented its floral masterpieces way ahead of the usual blooming times. We view the early-than-usual floral parade indoors: from our bedroom and living room windows.
We particularly loved our lilacs and wisterias when in bloom. They perfumed the air with their showy purply lavender bouquets to the delight of strollers and passersby from the neighborhood. We noticed their perfume was almost intoxicating at sunset – quite romantic, really.
By mid-March, we could spy from our living room window the riot of colors of the azaleas in our front garden. Normally azaleas flower in mid-May in our gardens of years past.
The azaleas opened their lacy blooms a few days ahead of the even more showy clusters of the rhododendrons in our middle garden. The bright sunbeams made their luscious flowers show iridescence and silkiness. They beckoned us to come outdoor and explore their beauty up close.
All these gratifying blooms of the azaleas and the rhododendrons were almost two weeks ahead of their regular flowering season, too.
The Mexican mock orange by the azalea and rhododendron area also joined in the symphony of blooms. In previous years, we didn’t notice its fragrance, but this year it asserted its presence both in visual display and alluring scent. When crushed, its leaves were supposed to smell like citrus but instead, the scent sent me back to my childhood memories of the sharp smell of crushed native mango leaves. Of course, its floral scent was that of orange, thus its moniker.
Our clematis vines also put forth their flush of wide-spanned blooms more than a month ahead of its June blooming season. So did our clumps of peonies. They’re already out, having a great ball showing off their God-given beauty and alluring fragrance..
Even the summer-blooming allium giganteum were already bursting in late spring their big balls of Sputnik-like blooms above the mass of heather at our front entrance garden bed.
The saying goes: “April showers bring May flowers.” Nope, not this year. The sun shone for most of April. The uncharacteristic sunny April coaxed the perennials in our garden to hurry up in their growth and – as if overjoyed with the unseasonal summer-like weather – bloom ahead of schedule. The customary April showers were not really necessary this year because the deep snow in late winter enabled the soil underneath the surface to retain some moisture from the generous snow melt.
The perennial plants in our gardens took their cues from the flowering shrubs. They, too, bloomed weeks ahead of what their nursery tags would have mentioned. No one was complaining. Not us. Not them either, judging from their gusto in displaying early their beautiful flowers.
But then the rain finally came in May.
The late and seemingly constant downpour brought down with it many of the magnificent blooms that cheered us up during the stay-at-home quarantine. In a way, the rain ruined the parade of blooms.
In June it’s still raining on and off. The lawn looked lush and green, but the too-early flowers of Spring went down with the showers. But at least they had their days in the sun!
The rest of summer, the perennials and the shrubs produce their blooms as expected.
Our garden seems to be back to its circadian rhythm now. And so is society, somehow. Schools have partially re-opened; the malls, coffee shops and restaurants, and beauty salons have some of their customers back. People are no longer holed up in their homes as the general quarantine has been lifted up. Most workers, though, are just at bay, as the new normal requires soft reopening of most workplaces.
In our gardens, the early summer-blooming plants have been enjoying their glory days.
We notice the mid-summer bloomers have truly taken advantage of the sun and the rain. They’re on their mark, ready to get set – and on cue this time – GO!
Summer is the peak season in our garden, and most probably in yours, too.
So, NO, you dreadful, fearsome Covid, you can’t have your way in everything after all. You see, a few of our garden plants may have been affected by some diseases, but definitely not Covid-19. Nope!
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