April showers this year ranks on the lower end of the scales. This past week alone brought only 0.23" of rain, total precip for the month was only 1.48". The May flowers part of that old "forecast" do not seem to be suffering too much though, at least not yet.
Flowering trees and shrubs are working through their cycles. The Andromeda flowers have started to fall off while the ornament weeping cherry trees are still in bloom. The Norway maple leaves are coming out, pushing their flowers off the branches and all over porches, roofs, driveways, any horizontal surface available. Dogwoods are starting to bloom, as are crabapples in the neighborhood. Early azaleas are blooming while older azalea varieties and rhododendron buds continue to get plump. Daffodils and other early bulbs have pretty much passed while tulips and poppies are blooming. Clematis vine has started climbing again (planted over 40 years ago), hosta leaves are sprouting and goldenrod are coming up again. Lawns are coming back as well, in fact lawnmowers and leaf blowers have been creating that background drone of internal combustion noise. While we are short of our usual rainfall amounts, all the plants do not seem too affected by it. That's a good thing.