Thursday 18th February, 2010

First signs of spring: alder and hazel catkins. A brief update on the treeblog trees.

By Ash

Male catkins on hazel (Corylus avellana).

Winter’s grip on the countryside is finally loosening! The weather may still be nasty, but the days are getting longer and the local alders and hazels have been blasting out their male catkins. The hazels in particular look rather spiffing, their pale yellow lambs’ tails creating welcome splashes of colour in an otherwise bleak treescape.

More male hazel catkins, or lambs’ tails. These photos were taken beside Broomhead Reservoir on Tuesday.

This year’s developing male catkins (cigar-shaped) and last year’s woody female catkins (egg-shaped) on an overhead alder (Alnus glutinosa) branch.

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And now for a brief update on the treeblog trees, neglected on this blog for far too long. Sad face.

Set A

The two Scots pines look fine. The four grey alders are covered in buds; the top of grey alder No. 4 is dead, as suspected in September. Most of the cider gums look alright, although a few of them have picked up a bit of a lean. Cider gums Nos. 1 and 15 look like they have suffered some serious frost damage. Will they survive? No. 15 took a lot of frost damage last year and survived… The post-Set A goat willow (the seedling formerly known as PSAUS) has some nice big buds.

Set C

Most of the downy birches have just started opening their tiny little buds. A few of them may have died, and some of them look to have had their roots exposed over the winter, so some replanting may be in order this weekend.

Set C’s downy birch No. 2 on Tuesday (16th February – 342 days after planting), standing a fine one-inch tall.

Set D

None of the sweet chestnuts or beechnuts, planted in the autumn, have sprouted yet. I’m aiming to plant my rowan seeds, the other component of Set D, in March. They are currently undergoing pretreatment.

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P.S. It was treeblog’s third anniversary on Sunday!

tags: alder + anniversaries + birch + flowers + hazel + photos + Set A + Set C + Set D + spring

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6 comments for First signs of spring: alder and hazel catkins. A brief update on the treeblog trees.

Kalle B.

19 Feb 2010 04:51:54

Wonderful, signs of spring is exactly what I need to see in this time of hard winter. There is still hope, even after a harsh winter like this. A few weeks, and it will begin to sprout all over again.

kitty

20 Feb 2010 19:07:08

The lengthening evenings are so welcome! And on Friday for the first time this year I felt warmth from the sun (although I was lulled into a false sense of security as it snowed that evening - so probably not a good idea to pack away my winter clothes). I also heard (though can't remember where) that there are going to be lots of flowers this spring.

Reece

20 Feb 2010 19:12:42

I've also noticed some leaves coming on a few of my trees. Mainly the cherry, birch and hawthorn.
And I have seen hazel catkins up the woods today.
The sweet chestnuts and beechnuts should come later on in the spring. They'll probably be putting some roots down right about now. It happens with a few types of seeds. The roots grow over the winter, so the resulting shoots have a headstart on weeds and grasses. It happens with oaks, horse chestnuts, sweet chestnuts (I think), and hazel.
It probably happens with a few more trees as well, but I only know of acorns, chestnuts, conkers and hazelnuts.

Ash

21 Feb 2010 15:18:42

Kitty, there was something on the BBC about loads of flowers arriving at once:
"The cold winter has delayed the flowering of spring plants by up to a month... Experts predict the delay will lead to plants all flowering at once, heralding spring's arrival in a riot of colour." (Cold weather delays spring blooms in Devon and Cornwall)
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Reece - I'm looking forward to the first shoots poking up through the soil!

Reece

20 Mar 2010 10:47:04

Speaking of spring, the alder and hazel catkins are out up where I am. And I have some larch, beech and sycamore seedlings coming through.
And a lot of my trees from last year are starting to get young leaves. A hawthorn hedge near where I live has leaves on it already.
And I've been busy planting some of my trees over the past few weeks.

Ash

20 Mar 2010 16:44:51

None of my seedlings have come through yet...
The spring equinox is at 1732 today - less than one hour of winter remains!

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