Saugus Gardens in the Spring

Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable

By Laura Eisener

What a difference a week makes! From the snow on the last day of Books in Bloom to the sun and warmth on Patriots’ Day weekend, we now have a lot of spring color everywhere you look. Bulbs continue to bloom, and now there are some bright colors in the shrubs and trees as well. Forsythia (Forsythia spp.) are in full bloom, as well as andromeda (Pieris spp.) with their white or occasionally pink blossoms, and in warmer spots the P.J.M. rhododendron (Rhododendron ‘P.J.M.’) are starting to blossom. There are many trees, including magnolia, cherry, plum and peach, in bloom around town. This week the “Saugus Gardens” column reaches the fifth anniversary of its first being published.

More varieties of daffodils continue to open as the weather warms. They have gotten more and more popular as the rabbit population grows in our area, since they can survive while other bulbs, especially tulips, end up being nibbled away by a variety of animals. Their flowers are not as strongly scented as hyacinths, but they do have a gentle fragrance. Tulips (Tulipa spp.) are beginning to bloom as well, although they are somewhat fussier than daffodils and demand protection from rabbits, squirrels, voles, groundhogs and other animals.

Arbor Day is today, and the trees seem to be celebrating. Many of the trees in flower this week are members of the rose family (Rosaceae), which includes many of our popular fruit trees.

Flowering cherry trees (Prunus spp.), which have showy flowers but small and not very tasty fruit, are primarily ornamental trees and have been very popular in recent decades. Weeping forms may have pink or white flowers, and they have straight trunks with pendulous branches. These are usually grafted, so occasionally the understock’s upright or spreading branches may take over and will need to be pruned to retain the weeping shape.

Other cherry varieties like Yoshino cherries (Prunus yedoensis) have spreading branches. This is one of the best-known species worldwide, and it is the species famously given by Japan to the United States in 1912 that became the basis for our cherry blossom festival in Washington, D.C., each spring. Some of the cherries in Saugus are members of this species, although they bloom almost a month later here where we are a little colder. The blossoms start out very pale pink but are usually nearly white when they fade a few weeks later. These cherry species bloom before their leaves. A later cherry species, Kwanzan cherry (Prunus ‘Kwanzan’) will flower much later after its leaves are already out.

Several other showy trees in bloom now are magnolias: the large tulip-like blossoms of saucer magnolia (Magnolia soulangiana), the narrower petalled star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) and some of their hybrids. They are looking better than I would have thought after last week’s cold nights and are benefitting from the warmer turn the weather has taken. Even the TV commentators during the Patriots’ Day marathon made some observations about all the magnolias being in bloom along the marathon route. Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue in particular is known for the magnolias, which were planted along it between Mass. Ave. and the Public Garden.

Birds are continuing their migration north, and many songbirds are starting families in nests in nearby trees. Along the river, egrets are returning. The first one I have seen this year was a snowy egret (Egretta thula) wading next to the dock at the Iron Works. They spend the colder parts of the year in the southern United Sates or in South America but return northward in spring.

This coming Thursday is May 1, which in medieval times was celebrated as the start of spring, with gathering of flowers, scattering petals from baskets during parades, making and wearing floral crowns and garlands, erecting maypoles with streamers and generally frivolous activities, which were frowned upon in early New England by the Puritans. Most of these activities were pagan in origin. In the British Isles, May Day was often called Beltane, and May 1 was one of four waypoints in the wheel of the year. In many parts of Europe, variations of these activities are still practiced, celebrating the warm days of spring.

  Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design, plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is a member of the Saugus Garden Club and offered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town” shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was inspired after seeing so many people taking up walking.