Bonsai Art

Every year the oak and the ash have a race to see who can open it’s leaves first.
The oak and ash are both completely different in that they respond to different factors to whether they open their leaves or not. The oak responds to warmth. Periods of more warmth in early spring will cause it to open it’s buds and come into leaf.
The ash responds to daylight length which is the same each year.

The saying goes as follows:
“Oak before ash, there’ll be a splash.
Ash before oak, there’ll be a soak!”

It could be considered a a bit of a wives tale

The bad news is… ash has started to leaf first in this area meaning that we could be in for a wet one this year!

There is another reasoning behind the saying:
In warmer springs oaks will leaf first and in colder ones they will take longer to leaf so the ash will beat them to it. Apparently 70% of the time the trend continues into the rest of the year.
So if an oak leafs first it should be a warm summer but if an ash leafs first it will be cold.

Only time will tell if it’s going to be a cold wet summer but one things for certain… The ash has won this year.