A Forsythia Blooms in December

I was startled yesterday, December 16, when I noticed blooms on a forsythia bush along the lane of the farm that I take care of. It was amazing to me to see bright yellow blooms on a winter bare, winter brown bush. But, it's not the first time the natural world has surprised and amazed me.

Over the years, I have noticed that many grasses, some flowers and shrubs do bloom in the fall when the length of daylight is the same as when they bloom in the spring. While all of the grass in a given sward blossoms in the spring (yes, grass has flowers if you know what you are looking for), only a small percentage of the plants in that sward will bloom on the falling of the sun as summer moves into fall. I have never found an explanation, just accepted that some plants get confused and blossom at the wrong time of the year.

I am really comfortable with that explanation, as I get easily confused, too and I would like to think that I am smarter than a grass plant. Some people might argue the point, however.

Anyway, back to my December flowering forsythia; it did not make sense to me that length of day would trigger this late flowering, because the “spring” or rising sun, with this same length of daylight, would happen about the beginning of the second week in January. Forsythia blooms, in this country, late in March or early April. So, I did a little research.

It seems, at least from what I found, that it is soil temperature and not length of day that triggers the forsythia to flower. In this climate zone, forsythia can begin to bloom anytime from March 10 through April 10. Blooming is dependent upon the soil temperature rising to, and maintaining at, about 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

During the first week in December, the temperatures at night were dropping down near freezing and day time temperatures were just breaking 50. The ground was cooling out as it was supposed to do. But, for the last 10 days, the temperatures have not dropped below 50 at night and the day temperatures have been in the 60s. So, much like the weather in March, our soil was warming after having cooled out and the one branch on one forsythia bush broke into bloom.

Life is amazing. Plants flower in order to reproduce. That's why your lawn grows all summer; because you keep cutting it and keep it from flowering and setting seed. The drive for the species to survive is incredibly powerful in the plant and animal world. The forsythia bush responded to our peculiar fall weather and bloomed again.

There are those walking among us who might see this as some form of evidence that global warming – oops, climate change – is messing up the natural world. There are likely some among us who might see this as some sort of evidence that mankind has messed up the world, destroyed our precious earth Mother. I have a different way of looking at it. It's all good and it all makes sense. We are having a warm spell after a slight cold snap and conditions around the base of that plant mimicked spring conditions and the plant responded to it's natural call to flower and reproduce.

The forsythia blooming in December is not a sign of problems or trouble. It seems to me, rather, to be a statement of the power of Life, of the strength of the natural will to live and maybe, maybe, just maybe a statement of a hope that springs eternal – and the hope that spring is eternal.

The temperature is dropping here this afternoon as I write this. We are going back down to freezing tonight and the high temperatures for tomorrow and the next day are forecast only to be about 40 degrees. The late season forsythia blooms will freeze off and blow away. But, I captured a picture of them and have shared it now with you, Faithful Readers.