Backyard blooms for the pollinators

The hummingbird salvia is starting to bloom.

The blossoms are such a vivid magenta color, that they add a pop of brightness to the backyard amidst the green lushness and rain.

This afternoon I observed an Anna's hummingbird sipping nectar from the blossoms.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me at the time.

These are blossoms from the same aster plant that I discovered growing next to a basil bush that I planted in a container pot last summer. The basil plant perished with the cold weather. But the aster is really thriving in the pot, producing a lot of blossoms throughout the winter, and especially now. The blossoms are such a vivid orange hue, they look almost fluorescent.