Everybody loves blooms. By far my most popular posts are of blooms and blooming processes. I mean, I could talk all day about the in’s and out’s of landscape design and installation issues, speak about the people I have worked for – those who have worked for me – my family, your family, all the rest and still, the posts everyone loves most are of flowers.

I think we have secret existences as bumblebee’s myself. Face it, we’re Pollen Junkies. 😉

….and………so without further ado, culled from the archives and seeing the light of day for the first times……… Who knew Oregon Grape could look like this?

(enlarge any image by left clicking – maybe even twice for incredible detail)

Double-blooming Kwanzan Cherries are among my personal favorite Spring-blooming ornamentals. The sheer profuseness of their blooms is mesmerizing and they can actually get pretty sizable.

This bad boy is 30 feet high and even wider.

This otherwise simple, middle and working-class suburban neighborhood in Gresham, Oregon – a suburb of Portland –  simply took the best of what Portland’s nurseries offered, made people dig a bunch of hard-fought holes on their own and then watch their futures unfold in a sublime bit of uncoordinated ‘hyper coordination’. Just check the various depths of colorful blooms as this tableau stretched on…….. These pictures really do want some enlargement to fully appreciate the colors and lushness of their settings.

Other places serve similar ends – Spring is a plain delight for anyone paying attention anyway – here’s some Reno blossom “hotness”, presented most gently:

The lowly and under-appreciated Sumac tree’s fresh and sprightly new leaves offer this gorgeous bloom for a truly gorgeous, radiant Springtime eye harvest:

Suburban Louisville, Kentucky has always benefited fabulously from hosting native Dogwood and Eastern Redbud trees, but the additions of other ornamentals such as Chinese Pears and the lower-lying Spirea and Viburnums of wide range, make for breath-taking tableaus of soothing and just uncommon beauty such as this Douglas Hills boulevard picture:

The fascination with Chinese Pears – especially inasmuch as they bloom so early, yields a feast of parkland which kick starts better weather with a nice and emphatic shove:

A natural filigree of lacy blooms and a caressing Nature adorn every Kentucky forest’s lime-green early Spring leaves with the beauty of native bloomers.

So we agree that Spring is special. I doubt anyone here argues the issue. And since we’re on the subject of blooms in general, let’s take a look at others – Roses, for example:

 

Here are 2 Rose Warriors, at their tasks as we speak!

Star Magnolias are another blooming winner……….like the Chinese Pears, they also come super early in the Spring –

 

Other noteworthy stuff………. A Wysteria poised in front of some sumptuous turn-of-the-Century housing in downtown Louisville…….

You can almost smell this Lilac where you sit…..

Any blog I get involved in will have some Rhododendrons – it’s as simple as that. Unreservedly……. these are my favorite blooms, this one mixed with some killer foreground Spirea

More rhodies……

 

One more……..