They are in their full glory right now, but the “blooms†of a dogwood tree are one of those wonderful journeys of nature that begins in the high heat of summer, when the buds are first formed and kept hidden, secret, and as safe as they can possibly be. They stay in the tips of the branches, nothing more than a swollen end to indicate that something so precious is stored there, and if they’re lucky, and the winter winds aren’t too rough, they’ll survive into the spring.
As the days elongate and the temperatures ascend, they slowly unfurl, first with these bracts, then with the actual flower (the insignificant little buds barely seen here). Those bracts are what we perceive as the “flowerâ€, and in the dogwood’s case (not unlike another bract beauty, the poinsettia) they are where the real beauty originates.
A bonus is that they last much longer than an actual flower petal would, extending the vision of late spring prettiness they so magically encompass. The bright green of them will soon be a gorgeous light cream color, fluttering against a blue sky like so many butterflies.
