No Flowers

Around this time every spring, the crabapple tree at the front of our house will burst with thousands of little pink flowers. Because of its bright color, it will even give a pink hue reflection inside our home.

Here are some photos from the years past.

When those tiny flowers eventually fall to the ground it will litter our front yard with tiny petals, and would have an effect as if it was raining flowers.

Then the buds would develop into thousands of small crabapple fruits from each of those flowers. Those fruits, sized like blueberries, would be food for the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks for the whole year, even through winter. Even the rabbits and roaming deer would eat the fruits that would fall to the ground. It is a treat for us to to watch these animals feast on our tree.

So our crabapple tree does not only provide beauty to the eyes but is also provisions for the creatures in our neck of the wood.

However, this year our tree has no flowers. We have been waiting every day, but no blooms came out. Like expectant parents, we felt we had a miscarriage.

What happened?

I believe it was due to our very fickle weather lately. We had warm temperatures early spring that it felt like summer, which probably encouraged bud development. Then we went back into freezing temperatures that it felt like it was winter again. This sharp cold snap most likely killed the premature buds before they can even open.

Speaking of fickle weather, our temperature last week kept on yo-yoing up and down, from hot to cold, which can be a set up for extreme weather. The collision of hot and cold air creates the necessary atmospheric instability, that we had some tornadoes in Iowa last week. Some areas also experienced baseball-sized hail.

Here is a video of a some hail falling in our area a few days ago; it was a good thing that it was only pea-sized hail. But whatever few flowers we have remaining, the hail caused them to fall.

I am sad that we have no flowers in our tree for this spring. But I am more sad for the birds, squirrels, and deer. I guess they have to forage in some other’s yard this year.

If trees have emotions, I’m sure our tree is feeling sad too. Perhaps even grieving.