Backyard Update

There's been a ton going on in my backyard in March and April.  Here's a by-the-numbers update.

1.  This Johnson's Blue geranium is growing amid the Cuphea verticillata.  I like the strange pattern of the pistil and stamens:

2.  The Countess of Haddington rhododendron is done blooming now, but here's what she looked like a couple weeks ago in full regalia:

4.  After a tough start last summer, I'm happy to report the madrone is still alive.  During the rainy season, it's been growing nicely, I just have to be sure not to water or fertilize it this summer:

5.  This is a kingishi flowering quince.  I've since moved it to the boulevard strip in front of my house, because it is supposed to be a really tough plant:

6.  A bee enjoying an apple blossom on a late Sunday afternooon:

7.  After several plants died here, I finally got something to grow in the old incinerator--two pelargoniums:

8.  This Tsuga mertensiana could someday grow to be over one hundred feet tall.  Right now, it's just about a foot in the back of my yard:

9.  For some reason, the salad burnet in my vegetable garden went crazy this week.  I don't know if it's still good to put in salads once it's shooting up all these globose, green flowers:

10.  Here's a detail of salad burnet in bloom:

11.  And a detail of the fuji apple blossoms:

12.  I'm hoping all these blossoms lead to a bounteous harvest of apples this fall:

13.  A panorama of the front of the backyard:

14.  I took out the gigantic fuchsia in the corner of my yard, and put in a persimmon tree.  Not much to look at right now:

15.  And for those who were wondering, this is what the flowers of a Drimys winteri look like: