Ooh, look, it’s an ornamental cherry tree! How… unimaginative. (Thank the heavens it isn’t one of those weeping ones that have oh-so-obviously been grafted onto some other tree’s trunk.) Numerous ornamentals came with the purchase of my house and yard but none were too obnoxious*, and a few I rather like.
*sigh* I must admit that the cherry is stunningly lovely for the few days it’s in full flower every year. And nectaring insects love it, especially since it is one of the first blossoms of any significant size to bloom in the spring. (Funny, the forsythia never seems to hum with anywhere near as much activity as the cherry. Must not taste as good. Or perhaps it flowers just a bit too early.)
Still shooting from the hip (so to speak) and not doing so well. Whatever. I like the composition even if the mourning cloak butterfly isn’t spectacular. Or in focus…
Nor is the funky egg case in focus. Sheesh, you can hardly see it (it’s there on the branch to the far right). Nevermind, you are supposed to be looking at the lovely flowers.
I thought these things weren’t supposed to have fertile fruit. That’s a young’un to the right of momma tree that came up unexpectedly some years ago—a root shoot, perhaps? (The corkscrew willow, definitely one of my favorite landscaped bits of vegetation, managed a descendent too, a bit too far from the main tree to be anything but a seedling and, unfortunately, too far from the house for proper appreciation. But it is in what should be/tends to be wetter soil—good thing, as the original tree is all but dead now.)
Mmm, pretty… The interesting trunk help keeps the cherry attractive all the rest of the year when it isn’t blooming.
* Actually, the vine that was oh-so-efficiently twining up the lattice wall at the end of the deck (and the corner of the house, and the front kitchen window shutter, and the...) turned out to be a rampant, noxious invasive species of bittersweet. Wish I had figured that out years before it ended up everywhere.
