Out and About in the Arboretum

It may be a bit off your regular route as you tour the Courtyard Gardens on the Medford Campus, but make sure to take a look at Courtyard Garden 17. It is alive with early spring color, including camellias, daffodils, and hellebores — all great plants for you to enjoy the spring color.

We encourage residents and staff alike to get out and enjoy our beautiful collection of Daffodils, which began when a former resident, Midge Ilgenfritz, arrived at Medford Leas in 1978, with prized bulbs from her garden in New York. Over the past four years, over 4000 additional bulbs have been planted on the Medford Campus.

The graceful, arching branches of forsythia are graceful and showy. This fast-growing, hardy shrub blooms early, providing a sunny sight before the rest of the landscape greens up.

Over the years, we have often had a nest built in our parking lot garden — perhaps they are scouting for this year’s nest??

The month of March often brings pops of color throughout the Arboretum, and after such a white winter, we are all so pleased to enjoy some color. Keep an eye out on the buds of the trees and shrubs as we move through the rest of the month.

Pussy willow is the name given to smaller species in the Salix genus when the furry catkins appear in early spring. The North American native plant Salix discolor, a deciduous shrub, is the most common species.