Back to Spring.

5-2-11 SHORT HILLS: We had an easy trip back to NJ today and back to Spring. Almost everything, except rose-of-sharon, is in leaf or opening buds. The yard is finally drying out even though there was another 0.5 inches of rain. Some grass is actually growing here.

New blooms: apple, beech, red bud, lilac, Carolina allspice, viburnum, barberry, burning bush, azalea, lamium.


Claytonia. This spring ephemeral, standing two inches tall, is usually white with a couple faint reddish lines on each petal. This one is much redder-possibly a double or triple dose of a color gene.

Flowering Apple with robin's nest.

Dogwood. Ever notice how the inner pair of sepals, not petals in this case, are longer than the outer pair?