Interesting plants

[silvering14]

I already posted about finding spring ephemerals in the woods in my neighborhood on FB, I'm not going to repeat that here. But later on in the afternoon I went for another walk, this time sticking to the sidewalks! I was mostly looking at various other townhouses' landscaping for ideas. As it turns out, I think the streets in my little corner of the neighborhood are slightly above average in the curbside appeal department - many other townhomes have second-story entrances and the stairs leading up to them are in many cases the worse for wear. Many of the front lawns are underwhelming in their appearance, even now while the trees are blooming! But there was one row in particular that caught my eye, but not so much because of anything special in the way of tended lawns and flower beds. That entire row, rather than having Bradford pears in the front yards, had white ornamental cherries instead. I've decided that white cherry trees are what Bradford pears are trying not very successfully to imitate! Cherries are just prettier - I like the way the flowers hug the branches. And they don't smell to high heaven either! The entire neighborhood stinks of Bradford pear. XP They're pretty to look at from inside but outside? Smelly! And they're fragile at size, too, since they grow too fast. Well, enough ranting about landscaping trees. At least I know what I'd replace ours with if it were storm-damaged. :3

But also on my walk I spotted something else cool - a little flower that reminded me of a hyacinth! After looking up flowers online, I've discovered that they're called striped squill. No, seriously! And now I'm plotting a spring bulb garden that involves those, white hyacinth, and grape hyacinth. Maybe by the time fall rolls around I'll actually have a bed to plant them in. ^_^;;