Mid spring brings mountain laurel, lady’s slipper
The green line has advanced to the top of the mountain and with it the tree canopy is spreading its leafy cover on all but the highest mountain peaks. Wooded trails now have their dappled light and the early spring wildflowers have already faded from the hillsides.
On the bike trail today, I saw my first new fawn running and jumping with mama. Last week, a nice-sized bear crossed the road coming into Ohiopyle. It always feels like spring will never get here and then all of a sudden it蘑菇视频 everywhere.
A real mid-spring treat are the lady蘑菇视频 slipper that grace our woodlands. You need to seek them out as even with their color they can remain somewhat hidden. They are protected and should never be removed from the woods. Their colors vary, but are mostly white and pink and a few yellow.
With the spring wildflower show winding down, Mother Nature is busy preparing for the new mid-spring production which began this week with the blooming of the rhododendron. The hybrid cultivars are first and come in a variety of vivid colors, purple, red, pink, yellow, white and a few mixed varieties. Almost every landscape and yard has at least of few of these plants. They are easy to grow and are faithful with their yearly blooms.
The native rhododendron is white and blooms in late June and early July. They like wet, shaded rocky areas and can be seen along many of our wooded areas. Our mountains seem to be a favorable growing area for these plants and while not as vivid in color as the hybrids, they truly put on a fine show. In between the hybrid and the native rhododendron blooms comes the mountain laurel. These pink and white bushes grace many of our hillsides and add to the production of the mid-spring spectacular.
After a rather cool and dreary start to May this past week, we were treated to a taste of summer-like weather with lots of warm sunshine and temperatures in the mid and upper 80s. More sunshine and warm temperature will be in the forecast for summer, and so far this year, we are averaging 3 degrees above normal and rainfall about 3 inches above normal. I did see one weather person refer to the warmth this past week as sweltering. I don鈥檛 think so.