2011Pmume

May Lee

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2011 Prunus mume Blooms

2010-2011 winter is a long and hard one. The average December and January temperatures were 4.6 and 3.3
F lower than normal, more frequent and higher snow precipitations than normal also. One good effect of this
cold winter is that the low temperature will keep the flower buds of P. mume in check and not burst into
blooms when a warm breeze comes by. So we did not have a Christmas blooming of P. mume like in 2006,
which had a 42.2F Dec. average temperature as compared to 35.4F Normal.

Yes, I had a crop of dense, healthy, beautiful, three varieties of Prunus mume blooms. The other two varieties
are not mature enough to bloom yet. I am waiting with patience. Some, except the ones with snow, captions
were selections from 11 century lady poet, Lee ChingChau. Pardon the lack of translation. It is too hard to do
justice.

I. Light pink, single--a gift from Mrs. and Maria Chou and a descendant of Prof. Li's P. mume.

The two Meis below, the one lighter pink on the right is the Light Single. The left one is double Pink.

II.Pink Double--Two blooming. One was bought from Raritan Valley Florist & Garden Center, the other
Rutgers Garden.

III. A Darker Pink- the label says "Prunus mume 'Ume' ". Ume is Japanese for Mei, so it really does not mean
much.

This is the second year my La Mei bloomed. It is also a plant takes 7 years to mature to bloom. As it is
young in blooming age, it blooms later in the season also. The fragrance is attractive.