Although cool temperatures have slowed the development of spring blooms at The Morton Arboretum, there are flowers to enjoy.
In the garden, administration, and visitor center areas (Parking Lot 1), daffodils are starting to open, and you can find fragrant honeysuckle blooming in white. There are new white blooms on some kinds of magnolias, while some saucer magnolia trees are beginning to show lavender and dark purple flowers.
Hellebores (Christmas- and Lenten-roses) are still showy, but are beginning to develop fruits. Forsythias are finishing their yellow bloom, while periwinkle has blue flowers. Fragrant viburnum continues blooming in white and pink, while boxwood and spicebush have green flowers. Flowering-quince flowers are beginning to appear in white, pink, and red depending on the cultivar. A Sargent’s cherry has pink flowers in the May T. Watts Reading Garden, which can be reached through the Sterling Morton Library.
On the East Side:
Look for yellow flowers of spicebush and leatherwood near Parking Lot 2. The silvery catkins of blue-leaved willow are in full bloom. Near Parking Lot 3, star magnolia and northern Japanese magnolia both have white flowers, with the blue blooms of Siberian squill beneath them. Near Parking Lot 4, early pears are beginning to show white flowers. Near Parking Lot 5, you can see white magnolias in full bloom with yellow daffodils just beginning to open. Near Parking Lot 6, flower and leaf buds are beginning to emerge on Ohio buckeyes.
In the East Woods between parking lots 8 and 16, look for wildflowers along the ground. They include white to blue hepatica in full bloom near Parking Lot 11, scattered tiny pink flowers of spring beauty, and white blooms of toothwort, rue-anemone, bloodroot and false rue-anemone. Blue Virginia bluebells are just starting. The green leaves carpeting areas in the East Woods are false mermaid. At Parking Lot 14, daffodils and Siberian squill are blooming. Near Parking Lot 16, Barrett Browning and Brackenhurst daffodils are in full flower. Near Parking Lot 17, look for white-flowering magnolias and pears. There are more white-flowering magnolias in the Japan Collection near Parking Lot 18.
On the West Side:
From Parking Lot 19, look west toward Joy Path to see white- and pink-flowering magnolias in full bloom. Near Parking Lot 20, yellow daffodils are in full bloom. Near the Thornhill Education Center (Parking Lot 21), an increasing number of flowers can be seen in the Fragrance Garden and along Joy Path, including daffodils, blue Siberian squill, magnolias, winter honeysuckle, periwinkle, pachysandra, and fragrant viburnum. In Daffodil Glade (Parking Lot 22), daffodils are beginning to bloom with scattered clumps of Siberian squill.
The Schulenberg Prairie (Parking Lot 25) is beginning to green up, and leaf buds are starting to open on the trees in the Birch Collection (Parking Lot 30).
Along the Alternate Route (parking lots 26–29), daffodils and Siberian squill are starting to bloom in Sargent’s Glade (Parking Lot 26). Look for skunk-cabbage in bloom along Willoway Brook west of the dam at the west end of Lake Marmo (Parking Lot 28). Virginia bluebells are beginning to bloom north of Lake Marmo (Parking Lot 27). Finally, pear trees are starting to bloom near Parking Lot 33 in Godshalk Meadow.
