This is a Very Bad Week to Park Underneath Trees in Connecticut

If you have a garage, or some sort of covered parking, consider yourself lucky, the trees of Connecticut are springing to life, and it's a bad week to park underneath.

Get our free mobile app

We've just turned the page on a long Winter into consistent 60–70-degree days in Connecticut, and we're a week into the month of May. I want to believe that the danger of frost and down comforters is over, at least until November 2025.  Every tree is bursting to life all around us in the past two weeks, and I woke up to my car covered in yellow a couple times last week. But look at what happened to my poor neighbor's vehicle over the past two days.

In just a little over 48 hours, I watched as my neighbor's minivan got completely covered in thousands of snow-like buds blooming off of what I think (?) is a Dogwood tree in our parking lot.

Thousands and thousands of delicate white petals have dropped off from the 20-foot tree they park under, and without the wind and rain last night, it would have been even worse. It's incredible how many landed and stayed put.

The other tree that you have to watch out for this time of year in Connecticut is the Bradford pear tree, it stinks. The small white flowers of the Bradford pear tree are emitting that foul odor as you walk nearby. It's hard to describe, some say it kind of smells like pee, poop, or rotten fish, that's close enough, it's definitely not pleasant.