When scattered snowflakes fell on the last day of March, New Yorkers might have been forgiven for thinking spring would never arrive. But with the weather predicted to warm up this week, plant experts say they may finally be in for a treat: a simultaneous burst of color, as flowering species that normally bloom in succession instead paint the landscape pink, yellow and white all at once.
“This spring we might have a little bit of everything blooming at the same time,” said Kristin M. Schleiter, associate vice president of outdoor gardens and a senior curator at the New York Botanical Garden. “It’s possible we’ll have daffodils and tulips overlapping. It could be an extraordinary year.”
Usually by early April at the Botanical Garden, in the Bronx, the delicate white snowdrops and the yellow, fringelike flowers of the witch hazel have come and gone. But they are still at their peak.
More exotic trees, like the Japanese apricots, should be a riot of rosy hues by now. And this time last year, which was a more typical spring, the magnolia trees were already displaying their long, blush-pink flowers.
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“The Japanese apricots are covered in fat buds, which are just dying to open,” said Ms. Schleiter, adding that she had seen only two blossoms on one apricot tree so far. “But the magnolia buds are tight. They are not thinking about blooming yet. They are still on the beach in Miami.”
Farther south, at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the blossoms on its arbor of cherry trees are expected to be even more spectacular than usual, because some species that bloom intermittently in fall and winter did not as a result of the cold. According to Stephen Fybish, a weather historian, this was the fifth snowiest winter since 1874-75, and the coldest March since 1984, with an average temperature of 37.7 degrees.
Brian Funk, curator of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden there, said that two species, the ever-blooming cherry and the autumn blooming cherry, would probably “have a beautiful, fuller-than-average spring bloom” since the extreme cold had forced them to conserve their energy.
“Some of these trees may actually benefit from having a nice, long dormancy,” Mr. Funk said.
This spring is a contrast to the strangely warm winter two years ago, when trees were blooming in February. Wayken Shaw, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s curator of Magnolia Plaza and the Annual Border, noted that in 2012 the magnolia trees were awash in flowers before St. Patrick’s Day. This spring, however, the first magnolia started to bloom on Tuesday morning; the big show will wait until mid-April.
One risk for magnolias is a fickle thermometer: balmy spring days punctuated by a late freeze can turn their lush blossoms a mushy brown. As if to exorcise the possibility, Mr. Shaw said he thought “the magnolias will be fine though.”
Back in the Bronx on Tuesday, at Wave Hill, a 28-acre public garden, Louis Bauer, director of horticulture, was busy with chores he usually tackles in late winter, like cutting back the perennial grasses and the colored twig shrubs. “It’s hard to do those things when there is ice and snow on the ground, so we’re a little behind,” he said.
Mr. Bauer, too, was looking forward to a condensed exhibit of spring flowers. The glory-of-the-snow — one of Wave Hill’s signature blue flowers, which carpets the woodlands — has just opened, coinciding with the irises and early crocuses. “Normally, they follow the glory-of-the-snow,” he said.
But the shorter seasons also means a revved-up workload, from weeding to dividing “rambunctious” perennials. “From the gardener’s perspective, it can be a little too exciting because it can go so quickly,” he said. “At this point, we’re just keeping up because spring is always a rush and when it gets delayed, it’s even more of a rush.”
