The daffodils are beginning to bloom at The Morton Arboretum! The pace of spring is right on track, and with warmer weather, more spring flowers will be opening from now on.
The first scattered blooms of daffodils are now open in many locations around the Arboretum, such as Daffodil Glade (Parking Lot 22), Sargent’s Glade (Parking Lot 26), the Elm Collection (Parking Lot 1), the Midwest Collection (Parking Lot 2), and the Appalachia Collection (Parking Lot 16), and near Crabapple Lake (Parking Lot 5). Over the next few days and weeks, more white and yellow daffodils will bloom. Many different varieties of daffodils that flower at different times are planted at the Arboretum to extend the season of bloom in April and May.
Wildflowers are also beginning to bloom. In the East Woods (parking lots 9 through 13), hepatica is blooming in varied shades of blue and lavender. The white flowers of bloodroot are just making an appearance. The foliage of spring beauty, toothwort, and Virginia bluebells has sprouted, promising more blooms to come.
In the Ground Cover Garden and other areas around the Visitor Center (Parking Lot 1), look for bright yellow blooms on Cornelian-cherry dogwood and forsythia. The yellow flowers of Cornelian-cherry dogwood and Japanese cornel dogwood are also blooming at the Arboretum’s main entrance; around Meadow Lake (Parking Lot 1); near the Thornhill Education Center (Parking Lot 21); and in the China Collection (Parking Lot 17).
In the Ground Cover Garden you will see the pink flowers and enjoy the scent of fragrant viburnum and the white flowers of the white fragrant viburnum.
The earliest magnolias are on the verge of blooming in a number of locations. A few white flowers have opened on star magnolia and Proctor’s magnolia, with many more buds swelling.
Green grass tips are showing on the prairie grasses around Meadow Lake.
Early spring bloomers are still with us: Christmas-rose and Lenten-rose, dark-blue Siberian squill and paler blue periwinkle are still in flower in the Ground Cover Garden.
Elsewhere on the grounds, silvery-colored catkins are on willows in the Midwest Collection on the East Side (Parking Lot 2) and in the Willow Collection on the West Side (Parking Lot 33). Silver maples and red maples are in full bloom.
A nice display of crocus can still be seen on the road crest overlooking Lake Marmo, between parking lots 26 and 27.
Skunk-cabbage is still blooming, with its 4-inch-tall, meat-red fleshy teardrop-shaped flowers. Look for this unusual native plant along Willoway Brook west of Lake Marmo and south of the Lake Marmo dam (Parking Lot 28).
Warmer weather this coming week should cause more flowers to open and bring more bloom and color to The Morton Arboretum. Visit early and often over the next few weeks to watch the beauties of spring unfold.
