May Day, Central Park

We entered the park at its Northeast corner, above the Conservatory gardens, where I was hoping to see wisteria over the massive wrought iron pergolas overlooking green lawn. I was not expecting tulips..They were breathtaking.

The lawns were pristine the crabapples opulent and sweet, the wisteria bloom...nowhere. Too early!

The seried hedges below the pergolas are wonderful in their fresh new growth, and in a few weeks I think one of them (above the taxus) will turn into white spirea flowers.

Down on the western side of the park, somewhere above 81st Street, we found a valley of Kanzan cherries.

 And a beautiful old crabapple.

Lower still, west of The Ramble, this native shrub grew in sprawling banks. I nibbled its hard black berries experimentally last year, deciding to spit them out, which was a good thing as Steve Brill told me they are poisonous. In bloom, I first mistook this for mock orange - he called them Jet Berry,  but I am not turning up a botanical name that matches this plant. Help?

A Pinxter azalea. The hard-packed virulently red, salmon and hot pink azaleas can become tiring but these delicate woodland creatures are their graceful antithesis. I found lots more in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden a day later in the Native Garden (with the loud ones higher up, caked in make up).