purple blooms

[Lanier_Lurker]

Sorry, I don't have a picture - but this may be an easy one for WDH or Dodgy.

Driving up and down GA400 every day, my eyes wander to all of the new blooms and buds popping out.  Mixed in with the numerous and unmistakable red maple blooms, I see a great many smaller trees (in some cases actually just large bushes) that have very distinctive purple blooms.

Any ideas, or will I need to get a photo or two?

[Radar67]

Since you are in Georgia, I believe they may be the same tree I'm seeing over here. I'm pretty sure they are Redbuds. I have a few blooming on my place and they are the only purple blooms I have seen.

Here is a picture from a recent thread I posted.

[Dodgy Loner]

Redbud would be my first guess, but they always seem more pink than purple to my eye.  Pawpaws are blooming right now, but they're not particularly abundant or showy and I doubt you would notice them while driving down the road.  I assume you're certain it's not wisteria?

[Tom]

Could be Wisteria, Dodgey, ...........or ...... Kudzu.......   or ...... Paulownia, or Rhododendren, or wild azalea...  less it's too early for them up there .

[Lanier_Lurker]

Redbud is probably it.

They seem to be quite prolific.

[SwampDonkey]

Wisteria, or weigelia? I'm familiar with weigelia, as it blooms twice a year in the back yard, the heaviest bloom in spring.

[Tom]

If you had Wisteria, Swamp Donkey, you would definitely know what it was.  If someone were to whisper your street address while standing next to a Wisteria Vine in Florida, a root sprout would appear in your front yard within the fortnight.   If you didn't take notice, the vine would run beneath your house and raise it into the clouds by morning.  You might open the door and unexpectedly fall a thousand feet to your death, or, at least, turn into a giant. 

[WDH]

I bet it is redbud.  If you can get to a flower, the corolla will be zygomorphic, that is not symmetrical in 4 planes, kinda like a pea flower.  There again, redbud is in the pea family  .

[SwampDonkey]

You might open the door and unexpectedly fall a thousand feet to your death, or, at least, turn into a giant. 

I better stick to weigelia then.

[WDH]

Good.  We don't need you without your feet firmly planted on the ground  .

[SwampDonkey]

The first purple blooms I will see this spring will be those huge purple "stinking" trilliums as soon as the snow melts. Yup they stink.