Sure Sign Of Spring

(click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, 12-100mm f/4 lens @ 75mm; 1/125th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

A sure sign of spring is when the dogwood trees bloom with their lovely flowers.  I cut this little branch with a blossom from one of my dogwood trees in my backyard, set it in the shade on a piece of black velvet and made a few images.  Nothing fancy, nothing complicated, just illustrative.  But what is unusual about this dogwood tree?

Typically, dogwood trees bloom, then as the flowers fade, the tree's leaves start to bud out.  However, this particular tree does the opposite.  The leaves fully form, then the blossoms appear.  This tree, I am told, is a hybrid dogwood, which is resistant to the disease that ravages other dogwoods in Virginia.  After doing a bit of research, I believe it is a Cornus × rutgersensis and was created by the hand-crossing of a an Asian species, the Kousa dogwood, with the common Florida dogwood

In any case, I planted this tree in 1997 and have enjoyed its beauty over the years.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

All content on this blog is © 2013-2017 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.