I saw this wonderful purple flowered evergreen Rhododenron 'PJM'.
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Flowers Around Town in the Days of Covid-19
Tuesday, 24 March 2020
I had thought to walk in the less visited public parks and gardens here in New Jersey but now all state sites are closed. John Beirne, superintendent of horticulture at Willowwood and a friend, told me that "Willowwood is closed to the public until further notice and we are only coming in as a skeleton crew- 2 staff 1 at each site every other day. It closed officially on Friday [that was on March 20] and they were back and forth about it for close to a week leading up to Friday. The Magnolias are not in bloom yet here actually, we are slow here in the spring. Believe me, I get it I was at NYBG last week before it closed and the Magnolias were just beginning to open, I would give the world to go walk through them now, all by myself. I will let you know when anything changes, Strange Strange times . . . "
Here in New Jersey we are told to shelter in place. Essential stores: grocery, pharmacy, and a few others - are open. Can walk for exercise but maintain social distancing separation of 6 feet. Having waffled for days about the situation - yes I'll go out / no I'll stay home - today Himself drove me in a loop around town to photograph what's in flower. Took some images from inside the car. I took others from just outside the car as the outside mirror was an in my field of view issue. Few vehicles on the road, occasionally an infrequent person walking. Let me share what I have seen.
There are links to other months and their flowers at the bottom of this entry.
Tuesday, 31 March 2020
Today I decided to make yogurt in my Instapot. Set things going and realized I used all the milk in the house. My choices are two-fold. Either drink coffee black until Thursday midday when I planned to go shopping. Or go this afternoon. I garbed with plastic glove, standard face mask, and bleachy washcloth and set off for the IGA in Frenchtown. Then on the way home
I saw this wonderful purple flowered evergreen Rhododenron 'PJM'.
And another large white flowered tree. A Prunus no doubt, but which one . . .
My friend,Joan suggests it is the offspring of a Bradford pear, another seedling
that escaped from cultivation, growing in a wild area, crowding native species.
And even though sunshine has been limited
my pink star magnolia has opened its flowers.
Monday, 30 March 2020
A visit to my friend Janet's house to drop off some cardboard while
we maintained proper social distancing. Looking around, I noticed
this lovely flowering quince, Chaenomeles japonica, in full bloom.
What an early season we are having this year, at least two weeks.
Returning home I paused to take a picture of this lovely weeping crab apple
on Route 519 just after the turn off Route 12. Another early welcome to spring.
UPDATE: I stand corrected. Too early, Joan says, for a crab apple. She feels
that it's most likely one of those grafted, short, stumpy, weeping cherries.
Truly magnificent. A huge, mature saucer magnolia, Magnolia ×soulangeana
in full bloom. Such clement weather the flowers are not brown and damaged.
Another mature tree in bloom. This time it is a flowering cherry.
Not one of the ugly grafted octopus-on-a-barrel but a naturally
weeping form. I doubt the current homeowners know the variety.
Thursday, 26 March 2020
It has been a week. Today I made an expedition to Flemington for pantry supplies.
It is warmer in town, I gather, because the saucer magnolias were nicely in flower.
So little traffic I paused right on Walter E. Foran Blvd, took these out my car window.
TO BEGIN: Tuesday, 24 March 2020
I gained a new appreciation for forsythia. So easy to grow, so common, so ordinary.
And in these extraordinary times, such a cheerful display of bright yellow sunny color.
A loose, unpruned hedge of forsythia, spreading sunshine on a cloudy day
A single shrub of forsythia, large enough for a child to crawl under and play house.
Forsythia leaning over a picket fence in town, spreading sunshine to passers by.
And the same can be said for familiar yellow trumpet daffodils, sturdy harbingers of spring.
An old stone house, one from the Revolutionary War that has been around
for centuries. The house. The daffodils, I happen to know, are more recent.
It's a little warmer, in town, than at BelleWood Gardens. This star magnolia
has flowers that are pretty much fully open, while mine are just budding up.
A burst of deep pink flowers on Prunus 'Okame', earliest of the flowering cherries.
It's not only "exotic" plants from outside North America
that are coming into flower. Just admire this red maple,
Acer rubrum. Time to stop tapping sugar maples.
And we came back home, completing a loop by using different streets.
I walked up the driveway to see what I might see. Rewarded I was.
Not positive, but I think these charming little daffodils are Narcissus 'W.P. Milner'.
Not a native, and not dandelions. This is
coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara, about to bloom.
Not especially showy but do they smell good!
This is the well-named Lonicera fragrantissima.
Almost invisible here. But another few sunny days, a little more warmth,
and my pink star magnolia will display more than these few hints of pink,
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