The plants are popping out very strongly on our warmer days.
They seem proud this year. The weather was rough, and the warmth came late. They suffered this Spring, but came through it OK.
I hope we can do the same!
“I’m the best apple tree on the Palouse.”
Quail like sunny days, too.
Dandelions: The yellow harbingers of Spring.
This year we had a mild, wet winter, followed by a late cool-down, then a sudden warm-up. The result: Everything seemed to bloom at once!
This made available many non-showy tree flowers, which don’t get photographed very often.
All these photos were taken last weekend.
Nature area trees
Ash flowers.
Maple flowers.
Willow flowers.
Fruit trees
Flowering fruit trees.
In this area, most fruit trees are introduced. I haven’t tried to figure out here exactly which types of tree these are. All the showy-flowered fruit trees are in the Rose Family (Rosaceae) along with familiar fruits like raspberries and strawberries.
Meadow by the bike path.
Fruit tree flowers.
Bees (present but not pictured) pollinate all Rose Family plants. In contrast, most of the non-showy tree flowers are wind-pollinated, and their seeds wind-scattered.
Fruit tree in an urban setting.
Daffodils
Pullman daffodils.
Somebody planted a lot of daffodils! I have never noticed them as much as I did this Spring. They are all over the place in the more recently developed areas. And I mean , really all over.
Daffodils front runoff management area, Bishop Boulevard.
Redwing blackbird guarding his domain.
The “Walmart Embankment” and more daffodils.
Daffodils up close.
Introduced urban trees
Aspen flowers.
I found this white-barked aspen near the top of the “south hill” in the hospital’s garden. It is not native to this area, nor is the birch pictured below. Birch, besides being somewhat delicate trees and preferring the protection of a forest, don’t seem to do that well in this area, but that doesn’t prevent this specimen in the middle of downtown from doing the best it can to reproduce.
Birch flowers
