Sunday, March 18, 2007

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge MA

Mount Auburn cemetery was founded in 1831. It was the first large-scale designed landscape open to the public in the United States. Today it is a beautiful place to visit at all times of the year. Great trees and plants, two ponds, rolling landscape, two chapel buildings, a tower with views of the Cambridge and Boston. A quiet place. http://www.mountauburn.org/

On Sunday about noon on March 18 2007 at Mount Auburn cemetery, the snow from Friday's storm was 6-8 inches deep, and glazed with an icy crust. Partly sunny, about 30 degrees with an occasionally brisk and chilly wind. The bare trees showed their forms, such as the corkscrew patterns in this Japanese Fernleaf Maple.
At first I thought it was Forsythia, but my horticulturally savvy partner S set me straight: witch hazel! A splash of yellow against a backdrop of white snow and bare branches. A great native plant that blooms so early.

Witch hazel has a frilly yellow flower with a ruby center. Not captured perfectly in this photo but a delight to see, especially when so little color is evident elsewhere in the landscape. Supposed to be fragrant too, but not on a day as cold as today.

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