ume. sakura. yay!
Our old office complex has what amounts to a small grove of ornamental plums (which it sounds like are more properly called hibai ume?). Thoroughly covered in pink flowers and just a few of their deep red leaves, they’re quite a sight in late winter/early spring. I still have to walk by on the way to our new office complex and they always make me smile.
Up in the valley, around Balboa Lake (it’s a pond, technically) are a hundred or more cherry blossom trees (Pink Cloud variety). They really get blooming around mid-March; I like going up early early and walking around in the quiet and fog and petals before the locals come out and start their dog-walking and exercising ‘round the lake.
The Huntington Library’s Japanese Garden is utterly wonderful when its collection of ume start to bloom. The trees are quite huge, their trunks and branches reaching out to be stood under.
Every photo of these trees that could be taken probably has been, but I go back for more every year anyway.
