BURSTING
LEAF BUDS
Feb-May
(March is best)
Besides the appearance of flowers, one of the excitements of spring is to see leaf buds opening and new, green leaves bursting forth. The bud has tough scales to protect the tender, growing tissues inside. Woody plants add new cells to their length or height only in these growing zones.
In mid-March the buckeye, elderberry, cascara, red-stem dogwood, thimbleberry, and salmonberry should be dramatic.