(Same tree as previous photo from the opposite side which is done blooming! Magnificent old tree, don’t you agree?)

Photos taken at Skylands Botanical Garden.

Can you find the bee in each photo?  Some are obvious of course, but a few are not.

The bees were hanging out in this clump of cherry trees on the grounds of Skylands Botanical Garden yesterday.

They were all buzzing around my head and would not leave me alone until I promised to feature them on my blog. Bees must be appeased, you know.

P.S. I certainly hope you are not tired of springy photos just yet. I have more ...

When you think about a large mass of beautiful cherry trees in bloom, no doubt your mind goes right to Washington, D.C., right? What if I told you that a park near Newark, New Jersey has more cherry trees than D.C.? Branch Brook Park in Belleville has over 4,000 cherry trees of over 14 different varieties, all planted in natural settings, making it the largest and most varied collection in the nation.

When Rick mentioned that we should go, I went online for more information. Their website said their Cherry Blossom Festival was next week. As our spring this year has rapidly been exploding with the last few days reaching high 80’s I thought I’d better call and find out how the blossoms were. The woman at the Visitor’s Center assured me that the trees were at their peak now, not next week. So yesterday over a long lunch hour for Rick, we headed down that way.

It was a nice day, but unfortunately the wind was blowing. And, when we got there we could see that most of the trees were either losing their blossoms in showers of petals in the wind, or they were pretty much done. Darn! We missed it! We decided to see what we could see anyway. The trees are not planted en masse so the effect is quite different from a row-like planting, allowing each tree to show its own unique beauty. They are spread out over a large area. Some trees were still beautifully showy. Here is a sampling of what we saw on our walk.

Beware of small cherry tree elves!

Just the gnarly shapes of some of the older trees, like this one, were amazing.

These two women/girls were wearing Easter bunny ears. They certainly picked a beautiful place to spread their blanket!

Next year we’ll have to pay better attention so we can hit it during their peak! Those poor people next week at the Cherry Blossom Festival won’t have anything to look at. I think Mother Nature pulled one over on them this year.

But like I said, spring is exploding around here.  It seems like the trees popped overnight about two days ago and every morning when I get up the leaves on the trees have doubled from what they were the previous day. It’s crazy early for that to be happening!

Here is a small taste of some things in bloom around my town right now.

This beautiful dogwood tree in front of the town hall.

A weeping cherry that is so large you can’t see the house behind it! I love this tree.

Can you see that someone tied lavender ribbons to its branches? Probably for Easter. The year we moved here it was Easter weekend and they had little eggs tied tied to its branches.

Not sure what this is, but it’s a miniature waterfall of white blooms. Maybe a mini weeping cherry in white?

I had to include this creepy sign for the florist. What do you think of it? I guess it’s been a landmark for years, only Kim tells me that it used to look even more like Michael Jackson than it does now!

I stopped by the local nursery to snap some pics of what they have out now. An explosion of color! (The daffodils in my header were taken here.)

I don’t know if it’s my over active imagination or what, but these daffodils look to me like they are trying to look around in every direction and saying ... hellloooo!

And last, but not least, this sleepy bee found a great napping spot. At first I thought he was dead but when I stroked him with my finger he moved his legs a little bit. Lazy spring bee!

They call us the Garden State for a reason!

Happy Easter everyone! Here’s what is blooming in my yard today. I hope you have similar brightness in your day!

Front yard:

Back yard: