Trees for Everyone - Easy Tree Studies for All Seasons of the Year

It was late April when I came by. As I looked up into that tree top the sunlight was shining through and at first I thought I must be dreaming. Instead of buds I saw what seemed like lighted candles each with a silken frill like the recurved petals of an iris below the tip of flame! I had never seen a tree thus illuminated and the sight was enchanting. The warm spring air had brought out the hickory buds with those of other trees and while I was looking for flowers on the ground the buds above had swollen cast off the winter covers revealing the silky inner wrappings of the young shoots. The rich downward-curving “petals” were only the inner scales of the great buds grown long and wide their vivid orange setting off the compact yellow buds that still stood erect... I had never seen a hickory tree opening its iris-like buds before but I have never missed it since. [From Chapter 1]