Back in NJ.

4-23-22 SHORT HILLS: The trip home was the kind of trip you dream about—smooth flight, took off on time, arrived early, ground connections all easy. Today started with overcast sky and patchy, gray sunshine, but cleared up by late afternoon.

I got a lot of chores done. I pruned, picked up broken branches and yesterday watered all the new plantings and started the sprinklers. There was 1.35 inches in the rain gauge, but things seemed dry none-the-less. 

Lots of plants have bloomed. The saucer magnolias have only a few flowers and some of those are deformed. The developing flowers were frozen by that cold spell and ‘nipped in the bud’.

New blooms: apple trees, dogwood, barberries, Kwansan cherry, redbud, Chinese snowball viburnum, blueberry, bleeding heart, yellow lamium, ajuga.

Kwansan cherry blossoms open later than the white Yoshino flowers. The native cherry trees have very modest flowers by comparison and aren't open yet.

Chinese snowball viburnium is the first viburnum to flower and has a very sweet aroma. It never makes seeds. Some of the other viburnums spread aggressively, but not the ones we really want.

Saucer magnolia has a few decent flowers, usually they're covered in blooms. You can see a couple dead, brown, frost killed remnants.

Redbud flowers open directly off the branches with almost no stem. Open, they look like tiny orchids.

Yellow lamium is bigger and taller than the hybrid white, purple and pink varieties. The flower has the pollen under that little umbrella over the landing spot for the pollinator, who gets pollen all over its back when it is looking for the nectar in that well. The landing zone and well are marked with directionals.