Horse Chestnut

There is a Horse Chestnut at the end of the row of trees along the drive to Belmont Manor and Historic Park. I’ve been photographing the opening of its buds over the past few weeks and arranged them in a series for this post.

The first photographs I took were on a morning after some high winds that had broken off a large dead branch and it had broken off a smaller branch that was very much alive with swollen buds almost ready to open.

The unfurling starts with the bud opening at the top

And the tight packed leaves beginning to emerge (note the scarring on the stem from last year’s growth)

As they open begin to separate from the tight fold – it is obvious that there is a fuzziness about them.

The bud begins to look very crowded with a lot of leaves

And that perception continues as the leaves unfurl enough to look like leaves but still retaining the fuzziness on their undersides.

I will continue the project until the blooms emerge….I’m not sure at this point where the blooms originate. Remembering from last year they are large clusters of flowers that appear well after the leaves unfurl completely.