The last weekend of March, metro Atlanta was subjected to the highest pollen count in nearly 35 years, with it surging to more than 14,000!

Despite the sneezing, itchy eyes and yellow vehicles, I do love all that flowers in the springtime! Tree pollens have been trending high, and one of the guaranteed culprits are pine trees. However, each week brings new blooms from different trees, almost in succession of one another.

For years, at the urging of my predecessor Walter Reeves, I’ve maintained a photo album on my radio show’s Facebook page called ‘Highway Horticulture’. There I share and identify trees and plants as they’re in bloom. The ones that greet Atlantans earliest in late winter are Okame cherry and saucer magnolias, followed by the dreaded (albeit pretty) flowers on Bradford pears.

Near the spring equinox each year, redbuds, dogwoods, azaleas, and wisteria start to show their color! To get great photos of these plants showing off, I often pull off the highway or into neighborhoods. The photo here I just took today is of the beautiful, ruffled blooms on a Kwanzan cherry. If pruned properly over the years, these large trees make a statement in front yards and open fields! At a distance, the flowers in the tree appear mauve in color, but close up are a baby pink.

Recently, I had a friend ask me for recommendations of flowering vines to display around a backyard pool. When placed against a permanent structure, with just a bit of training and upkeep, non-aggressive vines can make a great accent to columns, pergolas, fences, and lattice work. Some spring bloomers are:

- Crossvine - This is a perennial vine that can have yellow, pink and orange flowers. It’s one of the earliest to bloom in late winter.

- Carolina jessamine - Often incorrectly called Carolina ‘jasmine’, but nonetheless, this is a light vine with small yellow flowers that can bloom two or three times a year.

- American wisteria - Shop for a native variety like Amethyst falls. This blooms a little later than the invasive Asian variety and is a bit darker purple.

- Coral honeysuckle - While these orange-red flowers aren’t really fragrant, they’re a great pollinator plant and attract hummingbirds traveling back from their winter trip south.

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