When Do Trees Bloom In Michigan? (Where To See Them)

Most trees start blooming towards the end of spring in Michigan and stay in full bloom till late September. However, you can see some trees blooming with the onset of spring too.

Flowering trees are integral to the topography as they attract the state’s tourism. Blooming trees are also a sign of festivals that sometimes go on for more than a month, which is why spring and fall are the busiest months in tourist states.

But when do the trees start blooming, or what trees can you see around Michigan? 

We will also cover how long it takes for Michigan’s native trees to reach full bloom and what might be the best trees to plant in the state. We will also cover Michigan’s best places to see these blooming trees.

I won’t be going a lot deep into the species of the trees blooming. Instead, we will try to understand the best time to visit Michigan so you get to see these blooming trees in their full beauty.

What Time Of The Year Do Trees Bloom In Michigan?

Some trees in Michigan can bloom as early as March, with the onset of the spring season. However, most trees flower in hot weather and stay in their full bloom till late September to early October.

Trees usually form their buds as the heat starts withering away around October. They stay dormant during the fall and winter seasons to save enough energy to create intricate bud structures.

The buds remain unpronounced once the temperature starts dropping. They remain hidden throughout the cold bouts; hence during the winter, you rarely see a blooming tree.

However, as soon as the temperatures increase and the snow melt away, the bud will come back to life and begin to bloom at the appropriate time. 

Usually, it is common to see the trees blossoming with the onset of the spring season. However, Michigan is one of the colder states in the US, and snowfall here ranges between 150 to 180 inches per year.

This is why the blooming period is delayed here more than in other warmer states of the US.

The arrival of the first warm temperature in the last week of May to early June induces the trees to open their buds. As the temperatures and length of the days increase, the buds also start flowering.

However, due to unseasonal early warm temperatures, trees can sometimes start budding as early as March when it is grey and gloomy. This is why you can see some blooming trees by the middle of March, especially boxwood trees, wheat grass, and wintercreepers, even before the onset of spring.

The dependency of the flowering trees on climate is heavy and apparent, especially at the start of their blossom period. The autumn season starts at the end of this period, mainly through October, and the leaves and flowers begin to fall to prepare for budding for the next season.

Sometimes, early budding cuts the dormant period short, thus affecting the quality of the crop too.

What Trees Can You See Blooming In Michigan?

Michigan’s most common native trees are Sugar Maple, Black Oak, Cottonwood (Poplar), Quaking Aspen, Cherry Blossom, and Paper Birch. However, many other non-native flowering trees are grown to order in Michigan.

Sugar Maples are one of the most common trees in yards throughout Michigan. These trees are slow-growing in moist, well-drained, fertile soil but are long-lived hardwood trees, with a native range expanding through neighboring states. 

Surprisingly, these trees also do very well in gloomy and rainy winters. Over the winter, the tree protects its buds from the dry winter air under waxy scales to minimize water loss.

Black Oak is among the most valuable and rare native hardwood trees in the US. The common oak tree, also called White Oak, is abundant in the state.

The Cherry Blossom trees are generally found in Northern Michigan’s Old Mission Peninsula region. This place is high on tourist attraction lists and is overly crowded during the spring as well as autumn seasons.

The white, smooth bark of a paper birch tree is hard to miss and is, thus, one of the easiest native trees to identify. 

How Long Does It Take For Sugar Maple Trees To Bloom?

Sugar Maple trees are native to North America and grow slowly but steadily, adding around 24 inches annually. Green Mountain Sugar Maple trees will reach 40 to 60 feet tall and 35 feet wide when they mature in about 30 to 40 years.

Also known as Acer saccharum, sugar Maple trees begin to bud out early in the spring when they are hit with the first bout of heat, and leaves are fully formed three to four weeks later. 

However, when the environment around them is not warm enough, the buds do not open until late May or early June.

This delays the whole flowering process by a month, which is why sometimes you can see bright orange maple leaves even in October in Michigan.

The Sugar Maple tree reaches flowering maturity at approximately 20-30, with the onset of spring or the end of May.

Soon after, the leaves are fully formed, and the trees are adept at self-pollination. They run from Minnesota to Missouri and grow 12 to 24 inches annually in these neighboring regions.

Sugar Maple trees are slow-growing in moist, well-drained, fertile soil but are long-lived hardwood trees, with a native range expanding through neighboring states. 

What Are The Best Places To See Blooming Trees In Michigan?

Northern Michigan offers a variety of blooming trees during and after the springtime. You can often see various colors during the spring festivals around the state all season long.

Grand Traverse County in Michigan is one of the most famous tourist attractions. It stays jam-packed all year long for its ethereal beauty.

The best time to visit Traverse County to see the cherry blossoms is late May to mid-June, but this can vary based on the blooming time of the season.

Maple Row Sugarhouse is a farm is another tourist attraction, not only for its famous maple syrup but also yards of sugar maple trees around the farm.

FallFest is another flower festival held annually around the little village of Lakeview in Michigan. People flock to these gardens in hopes of the perfect postcard-worthy pictures.

Final Remarks

There was not a lot of information regarding the blooming trees in Florida. In this article, I tried to tackle that by creating a definitive guide on the subject.

Let’s briefly go over this topic once again.

When do trees bloom in Michigan? Most trees in Michigan start blooming towards the end of spring, around the last week of May to early June. However, you can see some trees blooming with the onset of spring too.