Being flushed with color is, at least in my garden, the real intrigue of Spring. Flowers? We know about flowers. Children know about flowers; I too was stunned at a red tulip when I was three.

But foliage? That's for adults. And foliage that is flushed?  For sophisticated adults, like all of us dabbling in Dirt.
Here's my very-young Chinese chestnut. It's still a yard-high stick, gawky and scrawny. But even with just (let me count) twenty-four leaflets to its entire "canopy", the promise of major excitement is confirmed. Yes, it's clearly chestnut foliage, but in Spring these chestnut leaves are a beefy red instead of the usual native-American green.  And they shoot up from exploded-back deep-pink leaf scales.

Whooee this is a display of my-way-or-the-highway confidence.  No lambs and chicks here; this is Spring as a slap, not as some fluff.