It's Cherry Blossom Time in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania

Spring has sprung in a big way in Northeastern Pennsylvania, although temperatures feel more like mid-summer. And to think that just four weeks ago we had more than seven inches of snow! Just another consequence of climate change. Like it or not, we're going to have to find a way to live with it.

Daffodils came up several weeks ago and are just past peak, and the forsythia are almost done marking their locations with their lemon-yellow blossoms. Cherry, apple, crabapple, plum, mulberry, and flowering dogwood trees are all in bloom*, and the "stinkblossom" or "dead fish trees" (also known as Bradford Pears) are also nearly at the peak of their repulsive blossoming.

Downtown the grounds of the Mill Memorial Library have always welcomed springtime visitors to Nanticoke with their blossoming trees, although these are sadly fewer in number after a few harsh winters.


Coal Miners' Memorial and Mill Memorial Library, Kosciuszko and Main Streets, Nanticoke, PA, April 17, 2005

In my own back yard the dwarf cherry trees that I planted in late Spring 2002** (Lapins and CompacStella) are blossoming for the first time ever. Perhaps the birds will allow me one or two samples of the fruit in a few months.


Lapins Cherry Blossoms, April 20, 2005

More blossoms are coming soon - azaleas and rhododendrons and irises and Roses of Sharon and butterfly bushes and, the first week of June, my roses. Stay tuned!


*I think. Tree identification is not my strong suit.
**Or was it 2003? You'd think I'd remember something like that. Well, I'm sure I have the receipt around here somewhere...

And in case you're wondering, the title of this post is a reference to the obscure early-20th-century novelty song "When It's Apple Blossom Time In Orange, New Jersey".