Blossoms herald arrival of spring

It's official. Spring has arrived in eastern North Carolina. Forget the calendar. I'm not referring to the Spring Equinox, which came almost two weeks ago, or to Good Friday, a traditional green light for planting flowers and vegetables, which is more than a week away. Around here, the heralds of spring are the azaleas and the dogwoods. I'm happy to report that both are proclaiming the arrival of spring.

The dogwood, North Carolina's state flower, is a beloved enhancement to any lawn or forest. The dainty tree with its colorful flowers and deep red fall colors stands out in the spring and in the autumn. What's not to love?

Azaleas, properly cared for, can produce banks of color in an extraordinary spectrum of hues from white to dark red. In every home my wife and I have ever owned (not counting that second-floor condo we lived in for a couple of years), we've had azaleas. Some were legacies from other owners, big, rounded, fully mature bushes that demanded little care. Others were scrawny new plantings we brought home and planted, never sure whether they would produce hundreds of delicate, small flowers or scores of the much bigger, older variety. In the South, a house just isn't a home without a few azaleas.

Dozens of cities across the South have azalea festivals and dogwood festivals, linking festivities to the uncertain blooming of these flowers. Golf's Masters tournament may be the tour's most popular event because of the beautiful azaleas that line the fairways in Augusta and brighten every fan's television screen.

Like other things that can never last, dogwood blooms and azalea blossoms are treasured because they are so ephemeral, producing flowers that last only a week or two (I haven't yet invested in Encore azaleas, which bloom twice a year). So this week, and maybe the next, take a stroll around the neighborhood and soak up the colors of springtime.

Poet T.S. Eliot proclaimed April "the cruelest month." He must not have had enough azaleas and dogwoods around to cheer him up.