As you can see… winter is still hanging on pretty good here in TN.
These “buds” got a good coat of freezing rain… then we got about a half inch of sleet, and today is when we are supposed to get more accumulation, snow, ice, freezing rain…
I expect all these buds will be just fine… this is quite normal for us, Mid Feb.
Also, the leaves are tasty in soups, and the nuts can be roasted for snacking or baking.
But some people get a headache from its terpenes (luckily no one in our family!). I’ve heard it’s hard to germinate its seeds, but there are at least 4 or 5 seedlings around the yard. Its own seedlings are basically the only thing that grows under it (apparently the terpenes give worse than a headache to competing seedlings).
This post got me thinking about this time last year. It was an early spring for me and I paniced for a month over my plum blossoms. This year there has been 2 ft of snow on the ground all month and 5-8 more expected thursday.
Um, yeah, this is nasty weather. But, it will probably prove helpful to the fruit crop except for those “zone-pushing” cultivars. Callery pears were about to break dormancy mid January … but this cold has kept fruit from budding. Last year by the 20th of February around here, it was too late to collect scionwood. Not this year.
The osoberry bushes (Oemleria cerasiformis) are starting to flower – usually one of the first things in the early spring here, can’t wait until they ripen in early summer!
It’s a native to the Pacific NW, sometimes used in landscaping but mostly just grows wild. It was traditionally used by native peoples, so another common name is “indian plum,” though it is not a true plum.
The fruit are usually small (1-3 cm) with a single large seed. Flavor varies a lot, I assume partially due to natural variability and partially due to soil and light conditions. Good specimens taste like a mild, sweet plum with an aftertaste of cucumber, while lesser ones taste astringent with a strong cucumber-skin flavor.
They aren’t my favorite wild fruit, but they are almost always the first to ripen, so I gladly snack on them while hiking.
I can’t find any photos that I’ve taken, though I’m sure I have, but here’s a photo I found online, which says it’s a creative commons attribution license, photo by Leslie Seaton: