A weedy orchid, of all things, now spreading in North America. You can see the familial features in the structure of the flowers. There's a native species in the same genus but it is much more limited, found primarily in special locations such as around hot springs.

I just bought a succulent yesterday from Home Depot, Blue Chalk Sticks (also known as Blue Chalk Fingers). I'm going to plant it in the flower bed and see what happens ... I took almost all of the flowers from my flower bed yesterday and planted them in containers. Now I'm waiting to see if/when the gophers start stealing my greens, which are all growing very nicely and almost ready to start picking! - Riding 4 Life http://vj4him.blogspot.com/

If you clear an area in the flower bed about 3 feet across and plant the apple tree in the center of that, things could go well for the first 3 years or so; after that the tree will shade out and dominate the area. The tree would not take care of itself during this 3-year time; it would need regular summer water. For better advice, would need to know the type of apple tree: dwarf, columnar, semi-dwarf, full-size, and variety. The tree should also be planted well away from the house. The tree roots would not harm the flowers, but if the flowers creep back densely to the base of the tree, they could slow its growth somewhat.

I'm down on (not down with) pop-up drains. They are highly prone to failure down the road ... or consider them high maintenance, needing to be cleaned out periodically ... unlike normal drains that are self-cleaning. For starters, you need a splash block at the base of the downspout. The grading needs to be sloping away from house. And then it needs to tie in with the drainage of the overall front yard.