I'm still working out in the yard for several hours every day. Our property is very old, and we've spent several years pulling out old shrubs, pruning back overgrown tree-limbs, and reseeding the lawn. Here in Tacoma, the height of the flowering/growing season is in late April, early May. Right now we see the greatest color flooding the yards and boulevards. Rhododendron, Azaleas, and all the flowering fruit trees are in bloom. This year I'm starting new Rhododendron shrubs, in pinks, peach, and deep reds.
'Percy Wiseman' is a stunning favorite, with large peach colored flowers, compact habit, and silvery new leaves.
Wikipedia indicates that Rhododendron is a very widely distributed genus, with major concentrations of diversity occuring in the Sino-Himalayan mountains of southeast Asia, from central Nepal and Sikkim east to Yunnan and Sichuan, with other significant areas of diversity in the mountains of Indo-China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Several species also occur in North America and a few in Europe, and some tropical species occur as far south as Borneo and New Guinea. Here in Washington you can sometimes see Rhodies growing wild in old forests, and we've seen many old varieties in Point Defiance, our city's large park in the North End of Tacoma.
I've got some shrubs that are so old, I've forgotten what they are called.
This perennial has the most colorful petals, many of which turn into different shades as the weeks go by.The grass in our backyard is seed we put down just a few years ago. All my compost was worked into the soil, so the grass came up quite beautifully, and has stayed very healthy.
This is the view from my patio, when I'm sitting in my chair - this photo was taken about 6:00 p.m. (To the left of this is my vegetable garden, with growing beds, my dahlia beds, and a junky compost pile that needs to be tidied up) ....still lots of work to do in this backyard. I'll cover all the 'clean-up' and repair projects in another post, for tomorrow.
And this is part of a pathway, lined with bark. This little bed will grow to be large tufts of purple and white allysum, an exceedingly fragrant flower....I took this last photo at 6:30 this morning, while getting a little water onto the grass. It is supposed to be close to 80 degrees today..... good growing weather.
