Spring's Promise

It's raining again this afternoon and there's more rain predicted for late next week. The long-range forecasts suggest that rain may continue at intervals through April, which, after 5 years of drought, is almost hard to get my head around. As rain is synonymous with winter here, that suggests a delay in spring's arrival but there's already evidence that spring isn't going to let a little rain get in the way. Right on schedule, our local harbinger of spring, the ornamental pear trees (Pyrus calleryana) dotting public and private spaces throughout the region, are bursting into bloom, a fact I couldn't miss when I took a peek at my back slope yesterday afternoon.

The ivy and Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Silver Magic' in the foreground mark the border between our property and that of our neighbor. The ornamental pear trees festooned in white blooms are on the neighbor's property, providing a pretty screen.

These are messy trees but I can enjoy those on my neighbor's property without any problem. However, I did inherit one of my own with the house and garden. Its mess has been manageable in prior years but, despite a good pruning in early December, its litter habit has been a lot harder to deal with this year.

Our Pyrus calleryana failed to provide much in terms of foliage color this year and never dropped all its leaves but it's started its annual bloom cycle right on schedule, as indicated by my February 11, 2016 post

Perhaps all the rain we had beginning in December caused the tree to develop more or larger fruit. Or perhaps the heavy January rains just brought more of the fruit down at one time. You can see how it's stained the flagstones. Keeping the fruit cleaned up (and preventing it from being tracked into the house) has become an almost daily exercise.

But the flowers on the ornamental pear aren't the only sign that spring is on the way. Narcissi have been in bloom for a few weeks and other bulbs are now joining the chorus.