I’m catching up on some cool photos from the past month. This was a nice rainbow in early June, when we were having quite a bit of rain storms. It also shows the cool playhouse/swingset I built for the kids. It was a kit from Toys R Us. Man, that thing was a lot of work! I think it took me about 20 hours to get it done.
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I’ve been working on this whenever I get a chance, which hasn’t been often enough, since I’m also finishing our basement this spring; today I finally finished planting all the new flowers in our long backyard flowerbed, after a lot of weeding, giving away plants I don’t want anymore (or tossing some that became like weeds), and moving the desirable perennials toward the back of the border (since most are moderately tall) and into groups that mass the same colors together. This is the flowerbed I wrote about last year, when I gathered advice from the GardenWeb landscaping and annuals…
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My Kwanzan (or Kanzan) cherries really came into bloom during the past four days or so. This one is the best of the three I have. Below you can see my row of sand cherries (flowering cherry shrubs) in peak bloom at the same time the Prairiefire crabapples are starting to bloom well. I don’t think these blooms usually coincide this well, but with the long, cold winter-spring we’ve had, it has changed many of the bloom times. The crabapples have hit peak bloom nearer the first of May in past years, but right now, they’ve just opened their buds…
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Last week, we had two nights, I think, with low temps around 26°. That’s cold enough to kill some cherry buds, and I’m not sure how mine are doing. By the way, mine are Lapins cherries. This branch is showing a lot of brown cherry blossoms, but I really don’t know if that’s simply what they look like after they’re done or if it was frost damage that created the brown withered look. Despite the presence of some blossoms turning brown, there still were plenty of newly opened blossoms like these ones. I’m pretty sure we’ll get a decent crop…
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My Krauter Vesuvius flowering plum tree hit peak bloom last week, and the blossoms are pretty well fallen off now. Here are two photos from last week on April 29th, when it was probably right at its peak:
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This is my Mericrest nectarine, and it really has pretty blossoms. Here are a few shots with slightly different lighting. They were taken on April 29 – a week ago. Everything is late blooming this year, because of our long, cold, “La Nina” winter, and it sure is nice to see things finally blooming. Here’s a shot from up by my patio, looking down: I am positive that this tree escaped frost damage in our cold snaps the past few weeks, since peaches (nectarines are really a kind of peach) can handle low temperatures fairly well. I can almost taste…
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Last night, my remote thermometer says it got down to 26° (actually it was this morning at 6:30 that was the coldest). I’m concerned about my cherry and nectarine blossoms. Mostly, it’s the cherries that concern me, because not many of the nectarine blossoms have opened yet. I’ll keep an eye on them, but I hope that’s the last of the serious sub-freezing temps now. The next week is supposed to be better than that, but still there are several nights around freezing in the prediction. I found some info online that describes the temperatures that will produce 10% damage…
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This is my first year trying winter sowing (see my description here), and some of the seeds have sprouted, though I have 12 containers out and only four have shown signs of life so far. Here are my results so far: At top left is Alyssum ‘Oriental Nights.’ Top right is Lychnis ‘Rose Campion.’ Bottom left is Iceland poppies (they sure need some thinning!), and bottom right is California poppy, ‘Summer Sorbet’ variety (well, they’re the seeds off of ‘Summer Sorbet’ and I can’t guarantee they’re the pure strain anymore).