Back in Short Hills.

5-12-09 SHORT HILLS: Spring continues to burgeon forth, to spill over and spew across the landscape. She is bubbling up and erupting from the root zone to the treetops. That’s the news, now for the weather, since the rain finally stopped, it’s been sunny, breezy and cool.

There’s work to do, trimming, weeding, the usual, but I’ve been just watching the leaves open and the grass grow. Yes, we actually have some grass this year.

The house plants are about to get their summer vacation.

New blooms: several viburnums—siebold, double file, tea, nannyberry; and others-carolina allspice, leucothoe, hawthorne, more azalea, first rhododendron, deutzia, solomons seal, wild strawberry.


Double file viburnum. The prominent flower parts are just to attract pollinators, the little flowers in the center do the job of berry making.

Rhododendron.

Azalea, cousin of the rhododendron. Your assignment: compare and contrast the two flowers.