Flower and fruit

Here’s an example where you can see blossoms and fruit-to-be in a single frame. As best I can tell this is salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), one of the earliest fruiting berries you can find around here. They’re described as a “mushy raspberry” and considered edible. Some people consider them “insipid”; others, “one of the best.” I don’t come across them often enough to have an opinion.

Pink

One of spring’s most welcome sights are the flowering trees around town. They explode with dramatic color along roads and in yards. Maybe I’m expecting too much but they move from blossom to leaf entirely too quickly.

The color in the flowering cherries is so welcome after a drab winter. But any sort of flowering plant is cause for celebration.

Balboa orchid mania

Balboa Park in San Diego, Ca is a fabulous place to wander and take in a 100+ year-old vision of the world. As the site of the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition it’s filled with architectural beauty at every turn and a great place to walk.

The Botanical Building was built in 1915 and is one of the world’s largest wood lath structures. I wasn’t sure what to expect inside.

Immediately inside the doors we were greeted with a display of orchids that made my heart go pitter-pat.

We were in for a treat. Inside the building was a big, lush display of cymbidium orchids and we couldn’t have timed our visit better. They were at their vibrant peak.

Two big groupings massed dozens of plants.

The building contains more than 2,000 permanent tropical plants but, for me, this visit was all about orchids and they were a knockout.