The Gift Of A Green Spring

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Did you see that? It doesn't last long, but one of the most intoxicating sights of spring is the renewal of growth everywhere as everything greens up. It's not only leaves unfurling from trees and branches that have been bare all winter long, it's also the intensity and variety of the shades of green we see all around us. From the baby shoots of grass where you sprinkled seed, to the lemon-lime brightness of new foliage emerging to refresh even evergreens like hollies and magnolias, that keep their leathery leaves through winter, but drop many in spring to put out a fresh flush.

The vivid range of springtime greens is breathtaking - almost yellow as they begin, turning into chartreuse, then many, hardening off to face the weather ahead, darken to a deep green to absorb all the light a plant needs to live.

It's easy to get distracted by so many flowers blooming from March until June - but it's the lushness of the leaves that's really the life of spring.