Lushness of May.

5-16-14 SHORT HILLS: I’ve been back in NJ for a couple days, a couple cloudy, rainy days, but the yard has the lush look of full spring. While not everything is fully open, when I look out the window, my sight lines are filled with green. Our neighbors’ houses mostly disappear behind foliage, and we only see patches of the streets.

The yard is full of flowers. I guess that the month of May has the most blooming plant species, even the grass looks pretty good.

New blooms: chestnut, mulberry, hawthorn, rhododendron, blueberry, deutzia, burning bush, lilac, honey suckle, Carolina allspice, kerria, leucothoe, several viburnums, columbine, wood hyacinth, ajuga, purple lamium, may apple.


Lurid azalea.

Rhododendron, the first of several.

Leucothoe flowers look similar to blueberry, andromeda and lily-of-the-valley.

Columbine, fancy variety.

Carolina allspice has an interesting flower and aroma.