SENSING A PATTERN

Greg Coppa reflects on an odd weather year and what continued warming may mean for his Rhode Island garden

- GREG COPPA

As the 2024 growing year progressed, Greg Coppa noted that many plants in his southern New England garden bloomed a few weeks early, from late winter's snowdrops (left) to late spring's lilacs (right) and beyond.

FROM THE MOMENT I returned home a bit earlier than usual from Florida in early March of 2024, I knew southern New England had escaped a seriously cold winter. My joyful snowdrops (Galanthus) were well developed and would be in decline several weeks earlier than usual. Buds on a few types of maple (Acer) and on lilac bushes (Syringa) were noticeably swollen and beginning to photosynthesize.

According to a Boston-area meteorologist, there'd been a low temp of 14 degrees (F) on January 20, after which the temperature rebounded to the low 50s in a few days. February saw no subfreezing days at all, and the Blue Hill Observatory, located just outside the city, did not have a single night of single-digit readings for the first time on record. And the winter of 2023/24 followed a year of significantly milder temperatures than average.

THE EARLY BLOOMERS

In my garden, I noticed all sorts of things bloomed earlier than usualgenerally by two weeks-including Kwanzan cherry (Prunus 'Kanzan', syn. 'Kwanzan' and 'Sekiyama'), various daylilies (Hemerocallis) and especially hydrangeas. We've always liked to have blue hydrangeas on our Fourth of July party tables, but most years we had to scrounge a few from neighbors to complete the bouquets.

Not this time! Our hydrangea blooms began to show on June 20, 2024, and hit peak by the end of the month. This was true of all varieties, everblooming or not, and even a few of the fussy older types that don't flower every year.