early alpine flowers?

Next weekend, June 6th-7th should be prime for the Alpine Garden, yes? If not, when do you suspect will be the best days?

Do you know of any areas where they tend to bloom earlier? Maybe on more protected sides or lower ridges? Bondcliff, Moosilaukee, Chocorua, Moats?

Are there species that bloom earlier, even slightly, before the diapensia and rosebay? Rhodora is looking nice.

I'd love to hike to some blooms this weekend.

happy trails

Bondcliff a week ago:

i noticed a lot of diapensia ready to bloom, or all ready bloomed, in the southern presidentials (particularly between eisenhower and pierce) on saturday the 23rd. some rosebay as well, i believe. i don't recall seeing much north of washington that day. i do remember finding nice flowers on places like guyot and hight right in the beginning of june in past years.
i'll look forward to pictures....

bryan

If it ever stops raining I'll hopefully be able to check... so much for this week.

bryan said:

i noticed a lot of diapensia ready to bloom, or all ready bloomed, in the southern presidentials (particularly between eisenhower and pierce) on saturday the 23rd. some rosebay as well, i believe.
bryan

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I can confirm we were in the same area today (Sat, 6/30) and the diapensia, rosebay and alpine azalea were all in bloom between Pierce and Eisenhower. Beautiful big "fields" of it.

Valerie

I've never caught Alpine Garden at its peak, but my best outing was early one June some years ago.

I hope to be up there next Sunday, the 7th. See here for details if you're interested.

Eisenhower this evening:

Great pics, Rocket! Thanks for all the info. Can't wait for Saturday!

happy trails

Although lady slippers are not really an alpine flower, I have seen a lot more of them this year than I have seen in a long time. Maybe it is because of all the rain. The trillium and jack-in-a-pulpits seem to have gone by, at least in the lowlands.

Anyone been up on the Alpine Garden or Bigelow lawns? Wondering if it is too early for a trip up there in the next day or two.

forestgnome said:

Next weekend, June 6th-7th should be prime for the Alpine Garden, yes? If not, when do you suspect will be the best days?

Do you know of any areas where they tend to bloom earlier? Maybe on more protected sides or lower ridges? Bondcliff, Moosilaukee, Chocorua, Moats?

Click to expand...

So here's the deal. You get quite a bit of variation with altitude & aspect (which way the slope slopes). It's because the rate of photosynthesis increases w/ temperature and the temperature is higher on south slopes and lower altitudes. The southern Presis (esp. Pierce & Eisenhower) are almost always going to start and stop earlier than the east & north side of Mt. Washington; 4000ft is going to be earlier than 5000+ ft. If I were taking someone from out of state to the Alpine Garden I would probably pick mid-June (e.g. June 12-18) as that has been good for me in the past.

Diapensia + Lapland rosebay + alpine azalea all start blooming about the same time (maybe a tad later w/ alpine azalea) but Lapland rosebay doesn't last as long. The willows should also be in bloom shortly. I'm drawing a blank about what else would be of interest about now.

Are there species that bloom earlier, even slightly, before the diapensia and rosebay?

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Empetrum eamesii (purple crowberry) and E. nigrum are probably in late bloom now. (if anyone with GOOD EXPERIENCE in macro photography is going to be up there in the very near future, please PM me -- I'm working w/ some folks w/ New England Wildflower Society on getting photographs some of the more obscure species. The picture below on the right I took 2 yrs ago in late May on Mt. Eisenhower and I don't consider it a really good picture, too hard to get good focus + depth of field)

Also below are two photos showing both Empetrum species -- there are a number of places where both are common, incl. the Mt Wash Auto Rd at about 4000ft, and near the Glen Boulder, and they're not hard to tell apart once you know what to look for. I think these photos were from Glen Boulder.



In the 1st pic E. nigrum is in the lower left and E. eamesii is in the upper right. Purple crowberry has whitish hairs on stems + some on the leaf margins too. Black crowberry doesn't have the hairs so it looks glossy + with more brownish stems. The 3rd pic shows staminate flowers of E. eamesii. No sepals or petals, just stamens (purple filaments and purplish-black anthers).

If you have an extremely good eye you may find Arctostaphylos alpina (alpine bearberry) in bloom but it's really tough. I went back one year to a spot I had marked on my GPS and I still had to wander around in the general area a number of times before I found the plants -- the leaves probably aren't out yet.

On Washington and Monroe today (6-4-09), Diapensia was budding but several days from being in full bloom. There were a few nice patches of Lapland Rosebay but it, too, was a few days from peak. Alpine Azalea also just starting up.
Word is that all are in bloom on Eisenhower.

Lapland Rosebay

Awesome! I'll be all over the Southern Presidentials tomorrow and Sunday looks good too.

Jason, I'm hoping to test my new lens with some macro stuff. It's much more capable than the old lens. I hope to find some of those species. I'll PM.

Thanks, all, for the great info.

happy trails

In Alpine Garden on Saturday, diapensia was mostly still budding - needs a few more days. Alpine Azalea was just starting to bloom. Rosebay was blooming.

Below Boott Spur, blooms were approaching peak (but numbers were fewer).

Noticed only a handful of crowberry plants (didn't see any white hairs), none in bloom.

Lower down, Trilliums were mostly faded, some painteds still blooming in the higher or shadier ends of their range. (Later found one big red inside the Flume Gorge). Clintonia blooming in places, past prime in others.

Oddly, didn't see a single lady-slipper in the Cutler drainage. (Plenty blooming in Franconia Notch.)

Alpine Garden on June 7

Came up the Wamsutta to the northern end of the Alpine Garden Trail. The first two sections of the AG clearly get a lot less traffic than the rest of it; there were large patches of diapensia growing in the treadway.

Diapensia seemed to be just starting to bloom. Rosebay was further along but
not at its peak yet, I would guess. Not much else showing other than a few bluets.

On Flume Sunday there was very little activity. Only the buds of alpine bilberry were starting to show. We were quite surprised. Same weekend last year, despite all the rain, there were many more species blossoming.
We did see a lot of rhodora starting to bloom on Osseo's ladders.

arghman said:

I'm working w/ some folks w/ New England Wildflower Society on getting photographs some of the more obscure species.

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Glad to see a plug for NEWFS; good stuff! See also the Garden in the Woods in Framingham, MA, where you can actually buy some of these New England native plants (although maybe not the same ones blooming at 5000 feet!).

I tried to do the seed thing with them a few years ago. Seeds are tough!

Thanks for these great photos.

I was up on Washington and the Southern Presies last Monday and (forgive my not knowing their names) it looked the flowers were just starting to bloom. Certainly not peak - but that was a week ago...

Monroe Flats

Hi Clay! We had a beautiful day up there this weekend! Flowers were gorgeous.

Here's our report from Saturday!

Tim&Valerie

Barkingcat said:

I'm planning a hike up to one or both areas on Wednesday morning to see/photograph the flowers, if they're blooming and not too far past peak.

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this doesn't answer your question directly, but now is prime-time for the showy ones (diapensia/alpine azalea/lapland rosebay) & I'd feel very confident about going.

If you need immediate first-hand evidence before you go & someone from this site doesn't answer, you might try calling up AMC Joe Dodge Lodge or the Mt Washington Auto Road and see if they know.