We still have one or two left . . .
. . . but after their glorious peak, it’s only a few days until most of the petals look like this:
Still, we shouldn’t shed a tear. With a little luck, there’ll be even more next year.
Plants
Magnolias in bloom
Above, 6:30pm Wednesday 14 March 2012. Below a shot in the dark from tree number one, about 6am Saturday 17 March, then again below, tree one about 9am. (About 5:30am, I’d been awakened by an owl of the variety “ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, UH-OOOOOH”, and subsequently dragged out of bed by young dog Cadbury.)
Wikipedia References: Magnolia, Magnolia Soulangeana
Last afternoon of daylight savings time
The Cherokee Princess dogwood about 3pm on Guy Fawkes Night.
Mayapple, aka Mandrake
This is the fruit of one of the woodland plants seen in bloom Easter Saturday as below. Although it was trampled and left lying flat on the path by the dogs weeks ago, the fruit itself has remained green and possibly continues to grow. 
Thanks to Nick for providing the identification. I’m renaming this post from “unnamed fruit”. References: altnature.com,
Wikipedia
Crape myrtle
Crape myrtle, just planted, 27″ tall. We’ve wanted one of these for ages, but didn’t know where to put it. After we bought this one, we still didn’t know, as we don’t have many spots likely to give it the full days of sun. Maybe this’ll do.
Easter
Easter Saturday
A couple of dozen shots taken Easter Saturday morning while wandering around the back with the dogs. Once you’ve clicked the first one, you can click the center margins or use left or right arrows to advance . . .
Good Friday — and springtime
Azaleas, wild dogwood, minding the hellebores, preparing the veg gardens . . .
. . . goldfinches, cardinals, woodpeckers
What tree is that?
By our northeast corner post:
Here it is again, two weeks later:
Cherokee Princess
Cherokee Princess, a flowering dogwood cultivar.
Said to be the industry standard for white blooms. Ours are more cream than white. We have many wild dogwoods, but none are blooming yet. This one came from a nursery a few years ago, replacing the gorgeous weeping cherry felled on this spot by the snow. (But a week later they seemed white enough. Below I added a few more pictures taken Saturday 16 April, just as the rain began.)
Wikipedia reference: Cornus florida
