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The Parties of the May-Day Fairies: May: Sourwood

In July we have the dense and abundant masses of the pink-white or rose-colored masses of the Clammy Locust (so called because of its sticky leaf stems and younger branches) and the flowers of the Catalpa and the Sourwood. The Chestnut never says a word about flowering until along in midsummer. In July when, "all of a suddenlike," after most other trees have blossomed and some of them borne their annual contribution to posterity -- it flings out its creamy-tinted catkins in a wealth of bloom. Yet, so fast do these pretty, late sleepers work, when once they have waked up, that by autumn and the first frosts the generous burrs are opened and the delicious, shiny nuts are all over the ground.

Illick, in his Tree Habits, has a classification of the flowering habits of trees which you will find very useful in identifying them in blossom-time: Blossoms Appear Before or with the Leaves: Willows, Aspens, Cottonwoods, Poplars, Walnut, Hickory, Hornbeam, Alder, Oak, Elm, Sassafras, Shadbush, Red Maple, Silver Maple, Norway Maple, Ash.

First Come the Leaves: Basswood, Buckeye, Horse-Chestnut, Catalpa, Chestnut, Magnolia, Tulip, Mountain-Ash, Black and Honey Locusts, Mountain-Maple, Stripped Maple, Dogwood, Sourwood, Persimmon.

Flowers in Conspicuous Clusters: Catalpa, Chestnut, Buckeye, Sourwood, Dogwood, Basswood, Locust, Shadbush, Hawthorn, Mountain-Ash, Crab-Apple.