Thursday and Friday morning I was enthralled with the beautiful groupings of flowering Saucer Magnolias on South Saunders Street heading into downtown Raleigh. Traffic was backed up a couple blocks before the new convention center, and just beneath the Western Blvd. overpass, on the right side of the road, were the beautiful magenta magnolias.

It was a lovely respite in an otherwise annoying stall of traffic. And it got me thinking about other great roadside flora I have admired through the years. Everybody admires the cherry trees in D.C., but our local flora is nothing to sneeze at.

About a dozen years ago we lived in Cary and I worked at an ad agency in the Park, and took the Morrisville Parkway as a cut-through to Highway 54. The whole center median was lined with goliath Bradford Pear trees, and when they were in bloom, they would take your breath away ... for one thing, they're extremely stinky. But for another, they were spectacularly snowy white—equally impressive was weeks later when all of the millions of flower petals floated off the branches. It did look like a snowdrift.

I also used to love driving down Trinity Road to our first apartment, and seeing the banks of yellow-blooming Forsythia. The hills were aflame with vibrant colors. I'm so thankful for the recent rain that's filling our coffers, and am looking forward to a showy season from Mother Nature.

• Do you drive past any spectacular showings of spring flowers?
• What do you see?