Flowers

The medium large saguaro in the front of the garage by the driveway has been producing flowers for over a week now. Only yesterday we were finally able to take the telephoto lens and get a close up of a flower not pointing straight up so we can see the inside of it. The arms of the cactus extend to twelve feet or so above the ground making it difficult to get a straight-on photo of the flowers.

We are noticing a few new buds that are more on the sides of some of the arms that might allow us to get a better image of the flowers when they open. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, click on the image to enlarge.

We purchased this potted cactus recently with the intent to eventually put it in the cactus garden. In the meantime, its spring flowers have been opening, the most recent of which is pictured above. I am not sure of the name of this variety, but it sure has beautiful hot pink flowers. 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.

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.