Spring Has Sprung at the Dallas Arboretum
Spring is a really exciting time in any garden, and here at the Dallas Arboretum, the bulbs have given us stunning displays of color for the last few weeks. Walking the gardens as spring progresses always yields fun surprises and delights us as the landscape that remind us that indeed, Spring has sprung!
Spring blooming bulbs are a long-lasting addition to any garden, especially when planted in early, mid, and late blooming rotations. By mid-spring, the garden produces constant surprises, with beds literally changing color before your very eyes! We have watched beds turn from dark orange, to purple, to yellow in a matter of days.
As the season progresses, our larger, more permanent collections start to put on a show, offering layer upon layer of color, fragrance and variety. As our blooms mature, we find startling backdrops of Quince and Forsythia.
Wisteria, carefully pruned in winter, comes to life and drapes our pergolas with vibrant color.
Our spring-blooming trees start budding and blooming throughout the landscape. Redbuds, Dogwoods, Scarlet Buckeyes, Snowball Viburnums, Texas Mountain Laurels, the Empress Trees, and of course, the show-stopping Yoshino Cherry Trees are just a few of the specimens we eagerly anticipate as the garden comes to life. (Editor’s note: As of March 26, the White Cherries are in full bloom and only have a few days left at most.) 
Even our less colorful collections offer an excitement that only manifests in the spring. The first flushes of new growth on perennials soften our previously dormant beds and give us a new spring green. New fern fronds and Sago Palm flushes lend us glimpses of the garden to come and its future size and shape.
Vegetable collections start to transition from winter Brassicas that have begun to bolt in the warmer days to warm-weather crops such as Fava bean, carrots and tomatoes. We even discover ground covers that were planted in the fall, now beginning to flush out doubly strong in the spring, such as Ajuga and Golden Oregano.
The first blooms of spring are always a time we celebrate at the Arboretum, as they take us out of the long winter months with a bang! As the season progresses, we watch the collection mature and it brilliantly reminds us of the beauty of its life-cycle and the excitement of the summer to come.
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