April showers bring May flowers

Last Mother's Day, I gave my Mom a flowering Crab Apple that I got at Down to Earth. It lost most of its flowers on the ride home in the back of the pickup truck, so she really didn't get to see it in full bloom that first year. Dad and I planted it up on the bank where it could be viewed out of most of the front windows. It seemed to have settled in well over the Summer & Fall. Its leaves turned a gorgeous shade of red in the Fall and it produced quite a few small red crab apples which hung on until late Winter. It promised to be hardy to very low temperatures, but I was nervous as we had a full week of 15 degree nights in December. But, as promised it survived just fine and started to break dormancy in early March. It  is now in full glorious bloom this week. At full maturity, it is suppose to reach a size of 15 feet in height with a spread of 15 feet. It's still small now, but I can imagine what it will look like in future Springs. And someday, we can take that ugly fence down around it, when it finally gets taller than the deer!