I am quite fortunate that the variegated leaf, Cornelian cherry dogwood (Cornus mas ‘Variegata’, below) has survived repeated moves as preferred trees were planted too close alongside. I blame this apparent disfavor on its reluctant growth, clearly through no fault of its own, resulting from the several transplants.

The glowing, early spring blooms profit from an evergreen backdrop, but the nicely variegated leaves are less advantageously placed to the front of a larger, variegated ‘Wolf Eyes’ Chinese dogwood (Cornus kousa ‘Wolf Eyes’). I am determined not to repeat the error by moving the tree again so that finally, the small dogwood will have the opportunity to shine, no matter that two variegated leaves reside beside one another.

I believe that the numbers of small, yellow flowers have increased in this late winter, so perhaps the corner has been turned.

After several days away from the garden, I am happy to see the Okame cherry (Prunus ‘Okame’, above and below) nearing full bloom. While many flowers are weeks early in this mild winter, Okame is flowering only days ahead. There is much commotion around the possible early flowering of tourist attracting cherries in our Nation’s Capital, but this small flowered cherry annually weathers freezes without a care.

Besides its early flowering, the upright, oval shape of Okame is superior to more popular cherries, allowing closeby planting beneath its upright canopy. I add that while cherries are a very typical mass of green through much of spring and summer, this tree hosts a vigorously climbing, yellow flowered, native passion flower (Passiflora lutea).

Several of the taller growing Japanese andromedas (Pieris japonica ‘Dorothy Wycoff’, above and below) are flowering, with blooming of low growing ones still a few weeks away. Several of the garden’s overly shaded andromedas skip flowering occasionally, but with a few hours or more of sunlight, annual flowering is assured.

I regret that ‘Dorothy Wycoff’ was planted close enough to the path to the rear deck that it must now be carefully pruned or the path will be obstructed. Of course, I did not expect it to grow so large (ten feet in height, another benefit of three decades of growth), but it is a splendid introduction to the rear garden. I must also warn that on mild days while it is flowering that bees become quite disturbed when I pass nearby, so ‘Dorothy’ is best placed a bit further from the path. I often walk the long way around.