In Bloom This Week – Your Guide To Neighborhood Plants

Forsythia

Forsythia became the official flower (though it’s a shrub, not a flower) of Brooklyn through the efforts of Florence Abraham Blum in 1940.  Borough residents were “urged to plant the shrub in their front yards from the Heights to Coney Island to inspire brotherhood, unity and understanding,” says the New York Times.

Mrs. Blum chose well. Forsythia is a forgiving shrub, that takes the abuse of our urban

environment without much complaining — it tolerates salt washing off from sidewalks in winter, dogs in all seasons, and repeated battering from car doors.

Inappropriate pruning of forsythias, however, will leave you with few flowers.

Forsythia flowers in late March through April — the best time for planting is early April. It typically grows 3 to 9 feet, making it a perfect privacy hedge, or accent plant.

Thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Blum, thousands and thousands of forsythias were planted each year in Brooklyn. If you have the time, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle archives provide a wonderful rabbit hole on this topic.

Also in bloom this week — a partial list:

Daffodils

The best spots to enjoy them are actually the wooded hills of Prospect Park, where you get expansive swaths.

Hellebore

This shade loving beauty is abundant in the neighborhood. One of the first spring flowers, most hellebores in our area have been in bloom since February.

Chionodoxa – Glory of the Snow

Vinca

Scilla Siberica

Crocus

Snowdrops

Primula

Yellow Marsh Marigold

There is a spectacular lawn of marsh marigolds on Argyle Road, between Cortelyou and Beverley Roads, across the schoolyard. These beauties are invasive and spread aggressively.

Hyacinths

Japanese Pieris

I think we will have some magnificent magnolias this week, once the weather warms up a bit. Everyone has their favorites, mine is the giant pink magnolia on the corner of Ditmas Avenue and East 17th Street. The photo below shows what the tree looked like in 2012, and it is just days from being in full bloom.

There is a beautiful white magnolia on Foster Avenue, by the Chase bank, and an even larger one on Albemarle Road in Prospect Park South.

(All photos in this article by Liena Zagare.)

Each week we will look at what is blooming, and feature one or more plants or gardens of interest. If you happen to take a photo you’d like to share, please do, ideally noting location and day.  Please also nominate your neighbors (or yourselves) for profiles — we’d love to feature as many as we can, and let this column evolve to suit the needs of our community.

If you have ideas, would like to contribute, or have a question we can help answer — do email me at Liena at cornermediagroup.com.