Picture demonstrates how retarded* our spring season here is - which is a good thing. None of the soulangeanas or cherries along the upper Bay are blooming yet. My Prunus mume 'Peggy Clarke' peaked last weekend, though. It's been that early once before since 2008. The buds of my various magnolias like 'Tina Durio' are swelling but no petal color showing yet. Hope they can survive the 25F we are forecast to get in the next few days.

Have heard the tidal basin cherries in DC could be record early this year.

* the original, correct sense of the word!

Nothing here except daffodils and a slight reddening of the lowest slopes of the mountains as silver/red maple flowers swell. First thunderstorm of the season yesterday morning, then a brief but powerful squall line in the afternoon. March coming in like a lion.....

Only hazel blooming here yet, but some years they do already in december

The magnolias have bloomed here and are now pushing out leaves. Of course the Callery's are blooming and leaves are starting on some. Most other flowering things seem to be sleep still. Other trees are still sleep too, Oaks, honey locust, etc. But my edible peach is in bloom and pushing out leaves and my ornamental peach is just now opening some of the buds. My bruce plum bloomed and leaves are now growing.

Yes, huggorm, hazel and alder here have blooming male catkins right now. The hazels are interesting as the female flowers are very tiny red-pedaled "stars" along the twigs.

very small Yoshino cherry tree:

What's particularly remarkable about it though is it's growing in climate zone 10 where Yoshino cherries supposedly have a lot of difficulty growing (lack of adequate winter chill and scorching hot dry summers). It's also growing on its own roots which means someday (if it survives) it will grow to become a very big tree, the size of a huge oak tree. Well, maybe not in climate zone 10.

Someone else in the neighborhood has a mango tree (with fruit). That should give you some idea of the climate here.

Speaking of Alder here it is, Alnus serrulata. The female flowers develop into tiny cones which are loaded with seed. Smooth Alder is a great wildlife plant and is often called for in restoration projects. It tolerates wetlands, fixes nitrogen and even has a flycatcher named for it (not sure why).

P. spinosa going over but prunus cerasifera in full fragrant bloom...and my almond /apricot hybrid ('Robinj') just about to break out in bloom. Horrible fruit (?) but gorgeous blossom which seems to laugh in the face of bitter East Anglian winds.

Wow, sam, I did not know we had native alders in central MD. Think of them as trees of cold and/or very wet summer climates, so would maybe have guessed they were found only up along mountain creeks in the Appalachians.

But that species of alder don't seem to grow very large. Strange that there is no large species of alder in eastern US when there are such a huge variety of other hardwood species.

I was recently hiking around the Greenbrier State Park lake near Boonsboro, Md (Blue Ridge mountains) and alders were blooming all along its shores. Also saw a pair of canopy-height (~90') big-toothed aspens along the shore mixed w/the oaks, maples and tuliptrees.