What’s in Bloom – Spring
There are a lot of debates about the best season in Michigan, but certainly a favorite season would have to be spring. Sometimes as early as February you’ll find skunk cabbage blooming in the wetlands. For fans of flowers, spring offers weeks of blooms, from dainty spring petals carpeting the woodlands to bulbs, flowering fruit trees, lilacs, peonies, and many more.
Azaleas blooming on Laurel Ridge near the peony garden in Nichols Arboretum. (Photo by Michele Yanga.)
Azaleas blooming on Laurel Ridge near the peony garden in Nichols Arboretum. (Photo by Michele Yanga.)
Bartzella peony blooming outside the conservatory at Matthaei Botanical Gardens. (Photo by Michele Yanga.)
Bloodroot, a native spring wildflower, getting ready to open in Nichols Arboretum. (Photo by Michele Yanga.)
The Nichols Arboretum Peony Garden, the largest collection of heirloom herbaceous peonies in North America. (Photo by Michele Yanga.)
Tree peonies in bloom, often several weeks before herbaceous peonies. In Nichols Arboretum. (Photo by Michele Yanga.)
A weeping cherry near Dow Field in Nichols Arboretum. This cherry is a rare survisior from a group of weeping cherries given to the University of Michigan by U-M alumni living in Tokyo as well as the citizens of Tokyo, after World War II