April 27-May3 Serviceberry

You may enjoy visiting Court 26 on the Medford Campus this week, as the Amelanchier в grandiflora 'Autumn brilliance', also known as Serviceberry, comes into bloom.   This beautiful alee of native trees was planted just last year, and they have settled in quite beautifully.

The white flowers of spring are in  full bloom right now, and will be followed by edible, juicy blue-black fruit.  The bird population enjoys the berries as the season progresses. In the autumn, the leaves turn to a wonderful combination of orange and red.  Truly a tree for all seasons!

April 20--26 Magnolias

This week it may be a good time to traverse the Medford Campus and enjoy in particular our Magnolia trees.  From the Star Magnolia in Court 66 to the Kobus Magnolias in Court 2, you will enjoy not only a visual array of interesting blooms, buds and leaves coming alive, but you will also be engulfed by the fragrance eminating from these trees.  As well,  outside of the Lounge, and covering a portion of the Terrace is a Saucer Magnolia in full bloom.  Better get out there soon, as the recent increase in temperatures is causing these blooms to peak very quickly!

April 13 - 19 Japanese Cornell Dogwood

This week, you will note incredible changes in our specimen trees across the Arboretum as buds begin to swell and leaves begin to take form.

In particular, you may want to take a look at the Japanese Cornel Dogwoodtrees, Cornus officinalis, located in the Main Parking Lot on the Medford Campus.

Native to China, Japan and Korea, this tree usually grows as a large, spreading, multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub to 15-25' tall, but it also may be grown as a small tree.  Yellow flowers are in bloom now to be followedby leaves in 3/4" wide clusters.  The fall brings oblong red fruits (drupes) that are very colorful.  The exfoliating bark with tones of tones of gray and brown make this a specimen to enjoy through all the seasons.

Spring Finally - Wildflowers April 19

It's been a long hard winter and spring is arriving late this year.   Migratory birds are about three weeks behind schedule, I've been told. 

On Saturday, April 19 it was about 50 degrees at 9:30.   Len and Dorothy Cebula, Bill Brown, Nancy Steelman, and Maggie Heineman walked along the Red Trail from the back parking lot, past the dock, to Meditation Garden and back through the courts to the Atrium.    There was lots of Skunk Cabbage, Spring Beautyy and Lesser Celandine, of course.  May Apples had buds- probably in bloom next week.   Blood Root, was not yet in bloom, but theres were quite a few plants along the Red Trail east of the road that goes down to the dock from Parking Lot A.   There were two colors of violets.   Volunteer Leatherleaf Mahonia is doing well along side Pebble Run -- and can be seen in several of the courts.

Bill Brown is going to be mapping where the plants were for future reference.

Looking back
 -- March 17, 2012 has photos of  Blood Root among other things.
http://medfordleasarboretum.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-17-wildflower-walk.html

-- April 6,  2013  we were complaining that spring was late -- but .the record shows that we saw Trout Lily on April 6 last year,  so spring was even later this year, 2014.
http://medfordleasarboretum.blogspot.com/2013/04/finally-spring.html