Nathan, were you making a pun with your reference to epicuticular wax, or were you suggesting that there is something to be learned with respect to time of bloom by observing the condition of epicuticular wax? Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7 On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 5:36 PM, Nathan Lange <plantsman@comcast.net> wrote: While I have never been one to monitor the timing of blooms (i.e. epicuticular wax), the flowering times for many cultivated spring flowering plants are significantly ahead of schedule across Northern California. Moraeas and Romuleas both undoubtedly flower primarily in response to vernalization. The accelerated accumulation of chilling hours across Northern California this year is the likely cause of their early flowering times: http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/Weather_Services/… The recent mild day time temperatures in January were very deceiving since the night temperatures were consistently far below normal, and the nights are much longer now and in January. Many recording locations are well over 100 chilling hours ahead of last year, another above average year in chilling accumulation. Even though these data do not represent soil temperatures, they are very indicative of vernalization accumulation. If anything, these data grossly under estimate this year's true vernalization accumulation since air temperature hours below 32F (0C) are not counted. Although the optimal vernalization temperature and duration can significantly vary from species to species, it's all relative. Everything is going to get vernalized sooner and therefore flower sooner this year in Northern California. Of course, I'm only talking about flowering plants that have access to water. Nathan At 10:26 AM 2/5/2014, you wrote: >About a month ago, My wrote to the list asking if bulbs were blooming early >this year in California. I wrote back saying that everything here in San >Jose was on schedule. > >My, I apologize. I was wrong. > >Although my fall-blooming stuff was on schedule, many of the spring blooming >bulbs are now blooming a month or more ahead of schedule. The spring Moraeas >are now starting to bloom, and several spring Romuleas are in full bloom. >Most of these would bloom in March in a typical year. > >I don't know if the cause is the dry weather we've had for much of the >winter, or the milder average temps (other than a nasty freeze at the end of >last year), or something else. But definitely stuff is blooming early. > >Back in December I was worried that the freeze might actually delay >blooming. Shows how much I know ;-) > >Is anyone else seeing early blooms this year? > >Mike >San Jose, CA >Zone 9, min temp 20F (-7C) > > > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/