15 April 2014
During the past three days we had a burst of blooms in Pittsburgh. Between Saturday morning’s foggy low and Sunday’s high of 82F the landscape transformed from incipient buds to gorgeous flowers. (Today will be different, but more on that later.)
On Saturday, 12 April 2014, I found bloodroot at its peak at Cedar Creek Park in Westmoreland County (above) as well as spring beauties…
trout lilies…
and hepatica.
This morning the temperature is dropping fast. It was 65oF at 5:00am and has already fallen to 47oF as I write.
Tomorrow’s prediction: 21oF at dawn. This will surely ruin the flowers.
It was fun while it lasted.
(photos by Kate St. John)
Yesterday, I discovered (or actually my husband discovered) a huge patch of bloodroot along our road in Washington County. Some of the flowers were past prime, but some still had buds yet to open, so I hope to go back today after work and see if they survived the frost. During a walk in Boyce Mayview Park on Sunday, nothing was blooming except for the spring beauties, so I don’t think the cold snap will have too bad of an effect on the flowers there, although I was not in the part of the park where the bloodroot or hepatica blooms so I can’t speak for those.