Beware the Blackthorn Winter

[Billhook]

One of my father's pet sayings which was proved correct nearly every year.  We nearly always had a mild spell with drying winds in the first two weeks of March and all the farmers would become very excited and pull land over ready for drilling.  

We would try and plant some early potatoes and I remember being on the back of a Howard Rotoplanter and it was so cold by late March when the white flowers of the Blackthorn (Sloe) appeared, that I am surprised to have retained my testicles.

After this warm February I would be interested to hear reports from up and down the country of the weather when the white flowers appear.

 

[spuddog0507]

hi noticed some out round here about 10 days ago, its a good point you made and sumit i will take notice of was in a woodland on sat morn and some sycamore buds just starting to open up in to leaf, hawthorn in sheltered areas are in leaf now,

[Billhook]

6 hours ago, spuddog0507 said:

hi noticed some out round here about 10 days ago, its a good point you made and sumit i will take notice of was in a woodland on sat morn and some sycamore buds just starting to open up in to leaf, hawthorn in sheltered areas are in leaf now,

Well it certainly turned colder here in the East Midlands when those high winds were here and we have had a few frosts, but there is no sign of the Blackthorn flowers yet and certainly no Hawthorn in leaf.

[gary112]

Blackthorn in flower about 2wks now and hawthorn in leaf now aswell

[Baldbloke]

Planted some Blackthorn about 10 years ago for the sloes. Until last year, when we had a great crop, the bushes flowered before the frosts ended. As a result we have had one years crop out of five actual flowering’s. For the first five years the bushes didn’t flower as I presume they needed to mature a bit.

So up here in Grampian it appears that the weather often fools some early shrubs into flowering prematurely.

One wonders if this is because the stock is sourced from more southerly climes.

 

Edit:

 

Our Blackthorn is a couple of weeks away from flowering this year

 

[gobbypunk]

Hi when I first started looking after the small Est I look after the boss man mentioned Blackthorn winter , never heard of it before that was 15yrs ago and F##k me ever year when the blossom is out on the blackthorn we get a bloody cold spell Blackthorn Winter.

Cheers Mark

[Billhook]

1 hour ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi when I first started looking after the small Est I look after the boss man mentioned Blackthorn winter , never heard of it before that was 15yrs ago and F##k me ever year when the blossom is out on the blackthorn we get a bloody cold spell Blackthorn Winter.

Cheers Mark

Where are you Mark?

it would be helpful for my little bit of research if anyone replying to this could state the general area they are talking about , please!

[Conor Wright]

Plenty of blackthorn flowering now around east galway. Roughly coincided with a drop in temperatures. Yesterday was the first day in two weeks our bees did more than a couple of hours flying. Last time they were out was before any noticeable amount of blackthorn had flowered.

[jamallio96]

I'm in Northwest Pembrokeshire, and here's what I've seen out so far this year -
Hawthorn, hazel and elder coming into leaf from about a month ago
Some buds on beech getting fat and starting to burst about 3 weeks ago
Sycamore buds bursting from about 2 weeks ago
Blackthorn flowering from about 1 week ago
There also been a few other fruit trees flowering for a while now :-)

[Baldbloke]

2 hours ago, Billhook said:

Where are you Mark?

it would be helpful for my little bit of research if anyone replying to this could state the general area they are talking about , please!

Profile says North Dorset