Urban Safari: Spring At The Arboretum 2012
The Arnold Arboretum is a fantastic place to visit any time of the year (Spring, Fall, Winter). However, if we could only go once a year, then Spring would be it. While the colors of Fall at the Arboretum are spectacular, somehow we would still prefer the blooms of Spring.
We stopped by today to see how things were going and got quite a surprise. We knew the plants at the RainyDayGarden were a few weeks early this year, but the effect was entirely different at the Arnold Arboretum. Plants currently flowering are the magnolias, cherries, forsythia, early azaleas, redbud, Japanese andromeda, and many more. Go here for an interactive map of what is currently blooming at the Arboretum.
Plants were in full bloom everywhere we looked, quite a difference from how things were when we visited on April 12, 2009. What is notable is that, according to Curator of Living Collections Dr. Dosmann, this year’s blossoming one of the earliest in 140 years of recordkeeping.
The trees are a little bit confused this year. The higher-than-normal temperature is telling them to flower, but the lower-than-normal rainfall is holding things back. If the rain predicted for this weekend does come, then the trees will all go into high gear next week. Bushes such as the forsythias have already reached their peak. Many of the lilacs are blooming right now. Not sure if any of them will still be blooming on Lilac Sunday in May. That would not stop us from going, for as we have already stated, the Arnold Arboretum is a fantastic place to visit, ANY time of the year 🙂
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