Spring is usually the vibrant season with blooming flowers, birds and butterflies, but this year many Ontarians are questioning online why it doesn’t look like the warmer season has arrived yet.
In a Reddit post on Wednesday, a Cornwall, ON resident started a discussion about the blooming time of trees in the province, after noticing that they seem to be taking longer than usual to come to life.
“I’ve noticed that the trees in my area haven’t started blooming yet, has anyone else noticed this? I’m in Cornwall btw. Also has anyone else noticed mosquitoes are extra bad right now? Or is that just a Cornwall thing? I’ve been here for almost 3 years now and I haven’t seen them this horrible,” the user said.
Joining the conversation, other residents also pointed out that they have noticed delays in tree blooming times and an increase in bug appearances across Ontario, including in Toronto.
“I notice this year too, I have two large bushes that always bud white flowers in spring, they don’t even have buds on them. My willow trees are bare, and my apple tree appears dead. Even my lawn is still hay yellow and [hasn’t] started growing,” one user said.
“Windsor is just blooming now and anything passed Chatham is yet to bud”
“My maples are budding like crazy, but my cherry and birch not so much. Grass is greening up though. (North of Toronto)”
But contrary to what many may think, University of Toronto Forestry Professor Danijela Puric-Mladenovic explains that it is normal for plants not to be blooming yet, especially considering the last few strong winter punches last month.
“Our winter also plays a role in this [thing] called chilling effect, for how long plants are exposed to cold conditions. And, obviously, temperature and sunlight play a role in promoting buds development. But, you know, let’s be honest, that there is a social expectation here,” she said.
“I think when we had one year like last year, that was warm, and now we have this cool spring. People… cannot wait for spring to come and then [they think], ‘Oh, what’s going on?’”
The expert explains that plants need a certain amount of sunlight and warmth to develop buds and leaves, and that when the warmer season takes time to come out, so do they, which is called the chilling effect.
“Studies show that the biggest predictor of what’s happening in spring [involves] temperature and sunlight, because that is what promotes plants to develop buds. But that’s the chilling effect,” she said. “If you have a longer winter and colder winter, then the development will take a little bit longer,” she said.
But Puric-Mladenovic also said that about 60 per cent of the time over the last decade, trees have usually bloomed around the beginning of May, achieving their peak at the end of the month.
The professor also said that she expects trees in Toronto to start blooming around next week after warmer temperatures hit the city, especially the Japanese Cherry Blossoms, which are one of the first to bloom in the season.
“The peak bloom was around May 25… [in] 2020, 2019, 2018, so my feeling is that that’s going to be this year as well,” she said.
According to the Sakura Cherry Blossoms in High Park, a blog that closely monitors the annual blooming phases of the trees in the region, with the warmer temperatures, the tree buds have now achieved late stage four, when florets can be seen emerging from them.
Toronto is set to see typical spring temperatures next week, with early double-digit averages and a few sudden changes, with temperatures reaching a maximum of 22º C on Tuesday followed by a minimum of 3º C on Wednesday morning.
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The blog also predicts that Torontonians can now expect to be able to see the trees’ first pink leaves by next Monday, achieving their peak around May 9.
CONSEQUENCES OF A COLD SPRING
It is not only Ontarians that get upset over long-lasting winters.
Puric-Mladenovic revealed that unpredictable and fast-changing weather, especially with longer winters and colder springs, can also be damaging to plants.
According to her, plants are very sensitive to light and temperature, and these conditions make the buds develop suddenly, which damages them.
“We may have a cold spring. Then, we have one or two days when it’s really warm, bugs develop, they’re ready to open. And then we have a cold snap. So, these late cold snaps and sometimes late frost definitely could damage the buds,” she said.
That might not only make normally vibrant-looking flowers to seem less vivid, but can also cause problems in agriculture.
“What happens this time of year in terms of bloom for fruit and trees will decide not just what’s happening with the flowers, but it’s linked to pollinators, right? If the flowers open, but pollinators are not there, the whole food production is impacted,” Puric-Mladenovic added.
The expert said that although a more profound analysis would be necessary to determine whether these issues with changing temperatures are linked to climate change, that could be the case, as the phenomenon interferes with the seasons, and causes extreme weather conditions.
“The literature and what people suggest [that what is] happening [is that] we are less able to predict some of these things, while in the past, when the climate was more stable, it was possible to have better predictions,” she said.
“The changes are more extreme, and because they are more extreme, they have more negative impact on plants. We may have a late frost, or we may have early bloom, but then the temperature goes back and gets cool again.”
