With temperatures regularly in the high 80s and into the 90s (F), spring is officially over at the Arnold Arboretum. This was my seventh spring at the Arboretum and nothing in the past six years comes close. Consistent cool and wet weather combined to allow almost every species to leaf out, flower and/or cone with exceptional beauty. Winter moth took the year off (mostly). And the horticulturists and arborists have been grooming the plants and the grounds with a passion and energy that defies imagination.
Head over to my Flickr site (click here) to see some of what I caught of the spring flowers (and cones) this year.
Finally, a bit of eye candy. Above, pictures of a magnificent (herbaceous) peony (Paeonia lactiflora ‘crinkled linens’ 383-2003*A) from the Leventritt Garden at the Arnold Arboretum three weeks ago. While we are an arboretum, we occasionally sneak a non-woody plant, such as this one, into the living collections (lower right, under the hood, so to speak, you can see the annual herbaceous shoots). Of course, the Arboretum’s real strength in peonies lies with the tree peony species (really shrubs) from Asia!