Come. Now!
There is an urgency to the explosion of billions of buds in the Arnold Arboretum right now. For the better part of a year, this growing season’s leaves and flowers have been encased in the dormant buds of every tree, shrub, and liana, waiting for the appropriate environmental signals to engorge with water, swell, and shoot out of their tightly closed vaults.
What I have chosen is entirely arbitrary. A beautiful chain of flowers of Corylopsis glabrescens (fragrant winter hazel; 113-77*B). The red-tinged leaves of a single shoot of Acer mono var.mayrii (Mayr’s maple; 281-88*B). A purple inflorescence of Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. oxycarpa (narrow leafed ash; 18881*A; a 1925 accession) whose minute hermaphroditic apetalous flowers call to mind the intense deep colors of the floral buds of lilacs. And well they should, since both are members of the olive family, Oleaceae.
FYI: The flowering cherries are at their peak. The Bradley Rosaceous collection is overwhelming. Lilacs and redbuds are getting started… Come. Now!