Unfurling

     This past weekend we headed over to my parent's place on the Eastern Shore to celebrate a couple of birthdays. Spring arrives there a few weeks after it arrives here in Norfolk, especially where my parents live so close to the still cold Atlantic. This morning the low was 32.5, but the skies were a clear blue, and many of the trees and shrubs in their yard, and in the surrounding landscape, were tentatively pushing out new growth. Though largely still brown, even the marsh was beginning to show the first blush of green.

     Golden Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Ogon')

     Fruitless Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua 'Rotundiloba')

     Ginkgo biloba 

     Contorted Filbert (Corylus avellana 'Contorta')

     Rabbiteye Blueberry (Vaccinium ashei)

     River Birch (Betula nigra)

     Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum)

     Edible Asian Pear (Pyrus pyrifolia)

     Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda)

     Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)

     Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)

     I don't know which species of hackberry this is, Celtis laevigata or C. occidentalis, but I do know the genus is underappreciated. They will grow practically anywhere (in this case with roots in the salt marsh), they have a handsome winter silhouette, sport unusual bark, provide food for wildlife, and the translucent green of their new spring leaves is something I have come to treasure.