Spring in the Neighborhood = Allergies and Flowers!

Anyone with Allergies out there?

In our neighborhood, we have Alligator Juniper, One-Seed Juniper, Utah Juniper and Rocky Mountain Juniper. They are all conspiring to make our lives miserable. Juniper pollen count has been incredibly high so far this year. The billions and trillions of pollen grains floating in the air has been like a bad science fiction movie! The allergies continue and people are sneezing and blowing their noses like crazy. Why is this a good year you might ask? Water…we have been about normal for precipitation but even more so, it has come in regular intervals and in the form of snow. What does that do for our trees, it gives them a healthy boost for flowering!

Do you have Allergies?

There is a Juniper Pollen Release project underway this year.

The USA National Phenology Network wants your help!

Obviously there’s a lot of interest in where and to what extent pollen is occurring.

This purpose of this study is to 1) Support public health decisions for asthma and allergy alerts in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma and, 2) Augment the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Network.

Check out the site below if you want to participate in tracking Juniper Pollen!

https://www.usanpn.org/nn/jpp

Predicted juniper pollen release and spread for March, 2013

Whats sad to see is that Payson, AZ is right in the middle of the highest Pollen area! How come Arizona’s Public Health system isn’t supporting this study?

Oh well we need to look at the bright side of Spring!

With the Spring comes our fruit tree blossoms, our bulbs blooming and every other early season flowering plant! Below are just a sampling of whats blooming in my neighborhood.