Another apparent Climate Warming and Wetting surprise is happening now: Our Viburnum cultivar bushes are producing spring flowers again, but in the fall, as you see here. Is this an omen of bad things to come or just a nice result of a strange spring and summer?
These double file bushes (Viburnum plicatum f. tomenosum) are turning their beautiful fall burgundy color in a timely manner, but the flowering is unprecedented for them. For decades, these bushes only produced flowers in the spring through June, followed by the summer red fruit and fall purple foliage. Not now. Oh well, if the world is going to hell, a flowered path might help.
There reportedly are over 150 species of viburnum, several of which are native to North America and were used by Native Americans and European settlers for food and tea. This double file species, however, is a native of Asia that has been cultivated widely in the United States. When abandoned, it sometimes naturalizes itself. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 8, 2023.) See also the image in the first Comment space.