The UNC college students were off campus for their spring break so we took advantage of temporary free street parking and visited Coker Arboretum, which is one of the botanical garden’s properties. It was a chilly, gray day, which made the pops of color we saw seem all the brighter. The lovely deciduous saucer magnolias were starting to bloom, ahead of putting out their leaves.
Draw me a Robin — on a stem —
So I am hearing him, I’ll dream,
And when the Orchards stop their tune —
Put my pretense — away —
~ Emily Dickinson
(The Poems of Emily Dickinson, #239)
My mother had a dearly loved andromeda planted by our house, right beside the dining room window. Birds would perch on it while waiting their turn at the feeder, which was attached to that window. As a child, I loved watching the morning birds while I was eating my own breakfast. Mom also said her favorite flower was lily of the valley, which looks very similar to these andromeda blossoms, and is why the shrub is often called a lily-of-the-valley bush.
It’s always nice to find a little sign identifying the tree, shrub or flowers I am looking at, confirming or disputing my guesses. There were plenty of robins and sparrows singing and flitting about, and we even saw and heard a towhee, but none of them would stay put for half a second to let me capture a picture! This is our second spring in North Carolina and it’s proving to be every bit as enchanting as our first one.
I felt like I were one of those little seeds coming up when I read this 🙂
It must be a good feeling to know you’re coming up and will be blossoming soon! 🌸
Cheers to you for taking advantage of spring break at the campus to capture the joys of a blooming spring.
Thank you, Frank!
Ah-h, the kiss of Spring. These gorgeous, colorful images lift my spirit. Thank you
for sharing your art. Blessings to You & Yours in NC.
Thank you for your kind words, Sandra. It’s so nice to know that my pictures resonated with you. Welcome to my blog!
Lovely to see all the spring blooms. It certainly does the heart good!
Glad you enjoyed them, Eliza. They are key ingredients in Mother Nature’s recipe for happiness! ❤️
What a lovely walk you had Barbara – so many pops of color, not just from the Magnolias which look so pretty. There are flowers everywhere and so welcome to see from afar while we deal with the ever-present dull landscape yet. The Andromeda-Lily-of-the-Valley plant is beautiful. My next-door neighbor, from about 40 years ago, was a 90-year woman who had such an amazing green thumb. She propagated one pink rose her husband bought her as a housewarming present when they moved into the house and she had pink roses around the entire perimeter of her yard from that one rose. While she loved roses, she also loved Lily of the Valley and planted them along the side of her house facing us. It would smell so wonderful on hot humid days or after a rainfall. I like the Japanese camellia you have here too. How nice they identify the plants for you. That Robin Redbreast is such a vibrant red! I agree that your second Spring in North Carolina will be as enchanting as the first one.
How amazing that your neighbor propagated a yard full of roses from just one! I wonder how many years, and how much patience, it took for that to happen. I love the sweet scent of lily of the valley, that must have been a heavenly perfume coming into your yard. The French scented soap smells wonderful, too, although I haven’t bought a bar of it in many years. Walking into this arboretum feels very magical, as if I’m walking into a secret garden full of birds and blooms, little streams flowing over rocks, and grand old trees watching over spring’s arrival.
She was very proud of her garden Barbara and it stretched around the entire perimeter of her yard, all pale pink roses. And even though there were hardly any gaps in the rosebushes, she was constantly taking cuttings, planting them when rooted and covering them with a jar until they were larger, so she knew she had replacements should one or more of them die. The roses smelled wonderful, as did the Lily of the Valley. After she went to a nursing home, the new neighbor moved in and cut down a good deal of the rosebushes to put up a metal shed in the back corner, then build a wooden shed to do his woodworking and also he kept his boat in the backyard … so there went the rosebushes and he tore out the Lily of the Valley as well and put in grass. I would like that arboretum – so much to see and I’ll bet the best time to see it is in Spring, when everything unfurls.
That’s a shame that your neighbor’s roses had to go to make way for new dreams for a new person. Nothing lasts forever and the reality of impermanence can make us sad at times. But her garden made her happy and she was able to enjoy it while she was here.
Ah, our brilliant days
shine like eternal stars,
They glow past as consolation
for future sorrow.
Don’t cry because it’s over!
Smile because they have been!
And if the days get cloudier,
Our stars redeem!
~ Ludwig Jacobowski
(Bright Days)
I like that poem Barbara – thank you for sharing it. Mrs. Mohasci was still gardening and nowing the lawn in her 90s. She was very spry even then.
You’re welcome, Linda. It helps me to enjoy pleasant memories with fewer twinges of sadness.
We all need to have smiles with our good memories these days.
The flowering quince photo is stunning. Such a delicate, yet sturdy, flower. Lovely.
Thank you, Ally! I love how the blossoms are wavering shades of pink and white.
That is the cutest robin that I’ve seen! I love how this photo gives an illusion with the branches placing this little robin in a triangular house.
I took so many pictures of that robin and this was the only one that got him framed inside that triangle! In all the others parts of his head were behind the branches — lol!
I love the magnolia, camellia, and primrose — such beautiful shapes and colors! I’m glad you got a chance to walk around the Arboretum while the students were on break — and I’m even gladder your second spring in NC is holding up to the standards of the first one!
The primrose was so strikingly bright and colorful there in the middle of all that dull brown leaf litter! And the magnolia and camellia were showed off beautifully against that dreary gray sky! I’m glad we thought to check the campus calendar, it seems spring break for the students was a bit earlier this year.
Hey Barbara– The saucer magnolia is what we have by our front door and it’s finishing it’s quick blooming, leaving us with a carpet of pinkish petals. I was told it was a Japanese magnolia, and today my neighbor, who also has one, called it a tulip tree. Japanese magnolia is another name for the saucer magnolia and is tulip magnolia, but as I’m sure you know the tulip tree is something entirely different. The Japanese camellia is what I gave you– the camellia japonica. Same thing. You saw a pink one. If the deer don’t get yours, it will hopefully be bright red. Looks like you picked a great day to visit the arboretum.
Susan, it will be fun to see what color the Japanese camellia will be when it blooms, either pink or red is fine with me! So far it seems to be holding its own out there. A neighbor said she thinks the deer tried it and didn’t like it and that’s why they left a couple of half-eaten leaves on the ground. All the common tree names get so confusing, don’t they? I didn’t know tulip trees and magnolia trees were related, but now that I look at pictures of them it makes sense. “Magnoliaceae” is the magnolia family they belong to. It was a beautiful day there.
This visit was quite enchanting, I loved every bloom you captured, such beautiful colors and details! Fabulous framing composition with your Robin, how perfect! Well done, Barbara!
Thank you so much, Donna! It took forever to capture that robin within that triangle — he was singing and moving around so much. But he was the only bird who stayed in one place at all that day. At least the blossoms held still for their pictures!
Spring is busting out all over down there! So nice to see! Magnolias are still a month away up here – they are usually blooming for my birthday at the end of April. My trip to Tennessee is 3 weeks away, so I’m hoping to see spring in full bloom when I get there.
The trees down here are leafing out now, about a month to six weeks earlier than it would be happening in Connecticut. I still feel a bit of ‘climate shock’ at times — lol. Our daughter and her family are in Tennessee now for the kids’ spring break. I’m sure it will be gorgeous when you get there!