How to describe leaves growing

Is there a nice way or fancy word to describe the new growing of leaves on a tree?

The word I'm looking for is something like "Leafing" or "Foliaging". I've also come across this, which to me sounds even more ridiculous: Leaf-out or Bud-out.

Any other cool words or creative options to express this?

Solution 1:

The Cambridge dictionary defines the term to sprout as:

to produce leaves, hair, or other new developing parts, or (of leaves, hair, and other developing parts) to begin to grow

Example from OLD, found under example sentence 1.2:

‘With the first rains, leaves sprout on trees and bushes and the savannah grass grows to several yards within a few months.’

Solution 2:

Spring unfurled the trees their leaves, to shake in the breeze and bask in the sun.

unfurl (verb) ~ Make or become spread out from a rolled or folded state, especially in order to be open to the wind.

with object: ‘a man was unfurling a sail’

no object: ‘the flags unfurl’

Leaves Unfurling

明 佚名 貍奴芭蕉圖 冊頁 Frolicking Kittens under a Banana Tree

Kittens in a garden setting was a favorite subject of Academy painters during the Song dynasty. Here, the young ones play while the mother watches. New banana plants and shoots, their leaves not yet unfurled, have just emerged, but a sprig of bamboo visible along the right-hand margin of the painting is still without its summer greenery.

This Washington State University presentation on Leaf Index Management specifically uses the word unfurl six times, relevant to leaves on grapevines.

• The ubiquitous unfurling of leaves, Spring's triumphant green flag.

Solution 3:

It repeatedly defies my attempts to see it happening; but, trees' branch-ends begin to swell ever so slowly with the spring rain.
Now, when this "budding" happens, if I don't immediately stop what I'm doing to stare intently at them trying not to blink, I'll miss how the swollen buds open appearing to explode and expand into mature leaves.