I don’t know the exact type of cactus this is, but I think it is probably in the cereus family. The little guy’s first four flowers opened up today and the configuration of the flowers reminded me of a couple of hoot owls staring.
There is another flower bud that will probably open up after the hoot owl effect goes away. Click on the image to enlarge.
This is the time of year that this little yellow palo verde tree on the road out front gets its tiny flowers (see inset). The bees love to browse these and you can hear them buzzing during the day when passing by the tree.
This little tree is one that was already growing here when we had the house built. There was a cat’s paw right next to the tree originally, but we had the landscapers remove it since it was encroaching and causing the little tree to lean over. Since that time, we have been pruning the tree to encourage it to fill out on the side where the other tree was.
This tree will probably continue to be in bloom until late May when the heat starts to come back to our desert. Click on the image to enlarge.
As of last Wednesday, we have been on the road, visiting friends and enjoying the scenery. Just before leaving Arizona for points west, I saw this saguaro in Parker. I believe this is the first one that we have seen with open flowers this year. Click on the image to enlarge.
We are currently in Palm Desert, California where we meet our son and his wife and our grandson who will be nine months old in a few days. The other set of grandparents, who live near here, are away in Mexico and the kids are watching their house while they’re gone.
We stayed the first two nights along the Colorado River on the California side visiting our good friends that live there. We had a pleasant visit with them and some of their family where we played cards Wednesday evening and went to dinner at the BPOE across the river in Parker on Thursday for Mexican Food Night.
Image: First Saguaro Flowers
Yesterday, on the drive from the river, we took the scenic route across the desert and through Joshua Tree National Park. It is always a beautiful drive through there; we entered the park near Twentynine Palms and exited near Yucca Valley. I took a lot of pictures in there and may post some of them here later.
This is a slideshow of six types of flowers we are currently seeing on and around our place here in Wickenburg. The first image is that of a cholla flower close-up followed by flower-topped ocotillo canes, a yellow prickly pear flower, palo verde flowers, a hot pink cactus flower cluster and a Mexican Bird of Paradise flower pod. Click on the image to advance to the next image.
More flowers are coming. We have already seen the first of the saguaro cactus flowers up the road and expect our big saguaro to come into bloom this summer. We really love the spring and summer flowers here in the desert.
Spring is again upon us and it is now in full effect. Most of the cacti on and around the property have already, are currently or will be, making their appearances shortly.
This pair of cholla flowers opened today just behind one of the retention walls that we had built here last year. At that time, we asked the contractors to be as minimally invasive as they could be to the flora and fauna near the work areas. They did a great job!
Our desert springtime is the best time of the year (even though we love the summers, heat and all) with the flowers on the trees, cacti and our landscape shrubbery. More pictures to come! Click on the image to enlarge.
It is springtime, which is a very good time of the year here in the Sonoran Desert. The trees are green, the weather is getting warmer and there are lots of flowers blooming. I post pictures of cactus flowers because they are beautiful and (mostly) limited to appearing only in the spring and summer months. No two are exactly alike and it gives us great pleasure to see them.
On the left above, is an image of a pink hedgehog flower open on a little cactus down the road from us. On the right, is a lovely yellow prickly pear flower, also down the road, open for beesness (pun intended). Click on either image to enlarge.
Bob and I went to a local nursery today looking for replacements for some failed sage brush in the courtyard. We finally bought some bottle brush bushes in five gallon pots that we will put in the ground in the days to come.
While we were there, I (of course) took some photos of the flowers that were opened on various cacti and other xeriscape flowering plants. I have been posting photos of pink flowers here this spring, since the pink ones seem to open first. At the nursery, there were other colors, too, most noticeably the red Claret Cup Hedgehog flowers and some bright yellow flowers on a barrel cactus that had neither its nickname nor a binomial designation, so it is a generic yellow-flower-producing barrel cactus at this point. Click on either image to enlarge.
We also bought another echinocereus cactus similar to hedgehogs that we have, that will produce red flowers. There are numerous flower buds on the cactus that will likely open soon. We need to pick a place to plant this cactus but will probably wait until after the flowers com to put it in the ground.