Newtown In Bloom

As the spring-blooming pink cherry blossoms fall from the ornamental trees, another color now attracts attention.

Along sidewalks and bordering parking lots and landscaped yards are decorative pear trees. What else might be prompting allergy attacks this season? Susan Barbier with local wholesale nursery Planter’s Choice, who identified a handful of trees and blooms, noted the clusters of white blooms on the pears follow the winter-flowering witch hazel, very early spring winterhazel, and early color from forsythia and cherry trees. ‘Tis the season for beautiful spring colors, she confirmed.

Crab apples and magnolias also have begun flowering, and pollens from maple and birch trees now leave dust on the cars and coat the driveways. Noticeable to residents who may be unfamiliar with the spring blooms, she points out the Cornus Mas, a tree in the dogwood family with “very tight yellow clusters along its branches.” They are across the street from the library near the flagpole, she said. More familiar are the traditional splashes of azalea and rhododendron blooms, accenting the perennials reaching up from the ground.

Adding a sweet scent to the air are viburnum, now covered with tiny white groups of petals, that will soon fade as the lilacs add their scent to backyards and formal gardens.