It may be spring, but Mother Nature suggests otherwise.

Last week we had temperatures in the low 30s with nighttime lows in the upper teens. Plant Phenology has Bowling Green, as of March 29, at 62 Growing Degree Days. At 42 GDD, Silver Maples (Acer saccharinum) have reached full bloom while Red Maples (Acer rubrum )reached first bloom at 44 GDD.

Both the Red and Silver maples are considered soft maples, and they produce winged Samaras. More commonly referred to as “helicopters,” “whirlers,” “twisters” or “whirligigs,” samaras are the winged seeds produced by maple trees.

All maples produce samaras, but the soft maples drop their seed mid spring. This year, due to the cold temperatures last week, we may get lucky as the developing seeds may have frozen. Looking back at previous years reminds me as much as we have wished for this in the past; we have seldom seen much impact on the samaras in previous years when we have had similar drops in temperatures. Time will tell.

Other landscape plants that were impacted by the freezing temperatures were the first bloom of Corneliancherry Dogwood (Cornus mas), Northern Lights Forsythia (Forsythia x intermedia) , and Japanese Pieris (Pieris japonica). As much as I hope the Maple seeds are frozen and will not develop drop and cause plugged gutters and messy yards, I do not want to see freeze- burnt flowers.

The Cornelian cherry dogwood, Cornus mas, is a little-known dogwood of note. Instead of the showy, white bracts of our native Kousa dogwoods, this tree has clusters of small yellow flowers which absolutely cover the tree in late March and early April. It is a small, dense tree with a rounded form and interesting exfoliating bark, like a river birch (Betula nigra). Flowers are followed by grape-sized, bright-red fruits with a single large seed ripening in late summer to early fall. These are edible, somewhat plum-like, and can be used for jams or preserves. `

The Japanese Pieris (Pieris japonica) is rarely found in Wood County. This plant prefers acidic soil often found in the landscape alongside rhododendrons. Japanese Pieris is known as Lily-of-the-Valley bush for its profusion of broad, pendulous, and urn-shaped white flower clusters. It is also known as Japanese Andromeda. Japanese Pieris is a broadleaf evergreen shrub with an upright and spreading branching habit, attaining a height of 8-12 feetand a width of 6-10 feet in the form of a rounded shape. It is often used as foundation shrub or grouped together in massed plantings. Use caution with young children as the foliage is poisonous.

Forsythia is both the common and genus name of a group of deciduous flowering shrubs in the olive family (Oleaceae) named after William Forsyth, a Scottish botanist who was at that time Director of the Royal Garden at Kensington and a founding member of England’s Royal Horticultural Society. Forsythias are fast-growing, vigorous deciduous shrubs with rough grey-brown bark and opposite leaves.

Depending on the type, they can grow 8-10 feet tall and 10-12 feet across and have upright or graceful, arching branches for a rounded, mounded, or upright habit. The flowers are produced early in the spring, before the leaves emerge, for a welcome show of bright yellow blooms. Plants in the upper Midwest typically bloom starting in late March to mid-April for one to two weeks.