Observation Journal 8 weeks of wonder By Shannon Kelly

Week 1 April 7 We have had a few very warm days recently and the trees on my street corner should soon come to life. Most of the bushes and trees still look to be in winter condition but one bush in particular on the bottom left of the picture looks to be sprouting a few buds and tiny leaves.

Week 2 April 14 In one week, one of the bushes has gone to tiny buds to a burst of greenery. The weather has been mild and rains earlier in the week have prompted one of the bushes to bloom slightly. The tree and other surrounding bushes remain dormant with very few buds.

Week 3 April 21 Following a surprise overnight inch of snowfall that melted as fast as is came, the bushes and tree all remained relatively dormant. The blooming bush has acquired more buds and the leaves seem to be growing in size.

Week 4 April 28 The leaves on this bush keep getting larger. We have had a ton of rain so I am surprised to find that there has not been any blooming on any other trees or bushes. I wonder if the other bushes are a different type of plant. The tree on the left of the picture hasn’t shown any signs of blooming; not a single bud. There are other trees blooming down the street that have similar trunks and branches and I wonder if those are also a different type of tree than the one I am observing.

Week 5 May 5 There are finally tiny leaves blooming on the other bushes. Still nothing on the tree but now with the weather in the 50’s and 60’s and more rain, I expect to see many more blooms by next week. The new blooms on the bush are a very bright yellow green. I wonder if they will turn darker like the bush that has already bloomed. I am excited to see if the blooms turn into leaves that are the same shape as the leaves on the bush that has already bloomed. If they don’t I wonder if this is the same kind of bush and why two different kinds of bushes would be planted in this space. Did the landscape architects run out of one type of bush and put in this early bloomer?

Week 6 May 12 The leaves on the bush are growing. They look to be the same shape as the bloomed bush but smaller and lighter green. The tree finally has buds too. All of the other trees on the block have been in full bloom for weeks so I’m interested to see what this one ends up looking like. Will it have flowers? It has been raining a lot this month so I would have expected the blooming process to speed up more for all plants. I am surprised that the tree in the left of the picture is not further along in the process.

Week 7 May 19 The tree hasn’t bloomed much more in this whole week. It has been hot but we have also had some rain. I wonder if the cold front of the past couple of days delayed the blooming more. The original bush seems to be maintaining its leaf size and deep green color. The later blooming bush is growing slowly. The leaves are still lighter green; an even lighter green than the first few pictures of the original bush. The original bush buds looked like they may grow flowers. Those flower looking buds look to have disappeared. I wonder why there aren’t any flowers on the bush and where the flower looking buds went.

Week 8 May 26 The tree is blooming! It is still not anywhere near the size of the other ones on the street. I looked for pictures of trees that looked like the one on my street but I could not definitively label it. The original bush is growing tiny flower buds. I wonder if they will become big flowers and, if so, what color they will be? It looks like all of the bushes are the same kind of plant. The leaves are slowly starting to match on all of the bushes. One of the bushes was just a few weeks earlier to bloom. Maybe the others will start growing flowers in the next couple of weeks. Now that I have a good idea that the bushes are all the same type, I wonder why one would bloom so much earlier. Was the ground more nourished in the area right around the original bush?