Celebrating spring at the Morton Arboretum

Sometimes it sneaks up on you.

One minute you're out there in the dark scraping ice off your car and shoveling snow off your sidewalk and then one day you wake up and realize the sun feels a lot warmer, the days are a lot longer and the drab gray of winter has magically given way to the bright colors of spring.

That transformation is happening everywhere in DuPage County, of course, but perhaps nowhere is it more obvious than at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, where visitors can explore roughly 1,700 acres and check out more than 4,100 types of plants.

The stars of the early spring show, of course, are the arboretum's daffodils that have popped up all over the grounds, but especially in the aptly named Daffodil Glade.

But just when the yellows and whites and oranges start to dazzle you, you glance a little farther away and find yourself drawn to the magnolias in full bloom that truly are, as the old joke goes, outstanding in their field.

You can check out the spring colors for yourself by joining the roughly 932,000 annual visitors who frequent the outdoor museum at 4100 Route 53 in Lisle.

For more details about what's blooming when at the woody plant museum, visit www.mortonarb.org.

Share your pictures

Do you have some springtime pictures you'd like to share with our readers? You can send them to our Photo Finish contest by emailing them in .jpg format with at least 300 dpi resolution to dupagecontest@dailyherald.com. Include your name, address and a photo number, plus a description. The monthly winner will receive a $50 gift certificate from PJ's Camera, Pickwick Place Plaza, 662 Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn.