"They Just Do"

How often have you said the three words of this blog title to your children, grandchildren or any young person when they've asked "why." We've all been there and asked "why" about a million times between the ages of two and five. I take that back, I think I only asked nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand times. I was a perfect child, just ask one of my siblings. They'd laugh and quickly walk away without answering, no need to go there, we all get along today - for the most part.  

A quick online search by one survey says the most frequently asked "why" questions by kids include - "Why is the moon out sometimes during the day?" "Why is the sky blue?" "How do airplanes stay up in the air?" And my favorite, which I'm still asking. "Will we ever discover aliens?"

I'm not going to answer these questions in this short blog. But I will avoid using the go to parental answer - "they just do" or "just because" and attempt to answer a garden question that is a curious "why" to me and maybe you.  

Prairie Fire Crab Apple

Here goes - "why do some trees (and shrubs) bloom before leafing out?" 

In my twenty plus year in the gardening world of learning and teaching I must have missed the class about blooms before leaves. Either that or everyone knows the answer and now I look pretty silly writing about this obvious phenomenon.

I'm going to assume you don't know the answer or at least want to know a little more information.

In full transparency I had to look this up and confirm my explanation. An online search wasn't instantaneous with the answer so I reached out to a couple of smart garden friends, one a very reputable horticulturist and urban forester, the other friend knows lots about lots of things in the gardening world. 

They both confirmed what I guessed. Their responses -"they just do," kidding...

Plants flower before leafing out to give them an advantage to the attentive pollinator audience who are moving between these plant species. After being pollinated plants have the time they need to grow their fruit to maturity, set seed and get those seeds dispersed by birds, mammals or the other ways nature does its dispersal thang every fall.

Flowers on plants that develop after leaves emerge generally produce shorter maturing fruits. Tomatoes are a good example. Some plants require a longer growing season to develop their fruit - drupes like walnut, pecans and almonds.

My take away from flowers first is not so much the why, although the reasons just reinforce how nature has it all worked out. For me it's the wow. We see these trees/shrubs in their glorious pink, purple, yellow and white spectacle of blooms far and wide - dotting landscapes and parkways proclaiming the obvious. They are the ultimate welcome emblems for another spring and summer growing season to weary, wintered out souls. 

Blooming Tree in Washington Park