Thursday, April 30, 2015

Signs of spring

The forsythia blossomed on Sunday, April 19.

I first saw leaves on the crabapple trees on Monday, April 20, but I did not see the crabapple trees April 17-19, so the first day of leaves could have been any time April 17-20.

Around that same time, leaves came out on the barberry. 

That was the time when many signs of spring started coming out, except of course the red maples and silver maples were earlier.

Right now, on April 30, we have:
  • Red maple and silver maple flowering enthusiastically.
  • Norway maple flowering enthusiastically and showing the beginnings of tiny leaves.  From a distance, Norway maples are clearly green.
  • Ash leaf maples are also clearly green from a distance, and their leaves are farther along than the Norway maple leaves.
  • Sugar maple and oak are just showing swelling buds.
  • Locust, linden, dogwood, and sycamore still look barren.
  • Ash has flowers and the beginning of leaves.  
  • Cherry has been flowering enthusiastically since last week.
  • Magnolia has been showing big pink buds since last week, and some of those buds are beginning to open into flowers now, for trees in south-facing locations.  
  • Lilacs have purple buds and green baby leaves.
  • Japanese tree lilacs are green from a distance.
  • Callery pear downtown were flowering enthusiastically yesterday, but the one near my office was not as far along today, though it did have small flowers.
April 11: still barren



April 19: Forsythia


April 20: Crabapple


April 23: crabapple


April 23: red maple



April 23: magnolia

April 28: magnolia


April 28: Norway maple

April 29: forsythia


April 29: ash leaf maple

April 30: cherry

April 30: weeping cherry


 April 30: view of Troy, with Norway maples in foreground


 April 30: Norway maple


  April 30: Norway maple


 April 30: ash leaf maple