Flowers

The Pride of Barbados (a.k.a. Red Bird of Paradise) shrubs in the courtyard are coming up much faster than they did last year. This stem’s flower pods will likely be opening very soon, about a month earlier than last year.

Neither of the other two Red Bird shrubs have any flower pods. This shrub has this almost fully developed pod stem and another tiny one that will be coming along soon. This shrub was the last one to have flowers a year ago. My, how things seem to change from year to year.

All three shrubs were installed in June of 2011, so this is their third spring/summer in the courtyard. Click on the image to enlarge.

The first of many flowers on our big saguaro cactus out front opened today. The tops of the cactus are twelve feet up in the air, so I got out the telephoto lens and took this photo from across the driveway. As you can see, there will be many more flowers soon. We hope to have flowers opening daily for the rest of spring and maybe into summer.

From 50 States dot com:

In 1901 the saguaro’s blossom was adopted as the official territorial flower, and later, in 1931, it was confirmed as the state flower. The saguaro cactus typically blooms in May and June. It is one of the most unique state flowers, and is characterized by having a waxy feel, but fragrant aroma. There may be hundreds of flowers on a saguaro cactus that bloom just several at a time over a period of more than a month. The saguaro flowers have a short life; they open at night and close permanently during the next day. Many of the blossoms will become pollinated and, later in the summer, the flowers become red-fleshed fruits that are enjoyed by the local bird population.

Any day now, the big saguaro cactus out front should have our state flowers opening up on it. This is the second spring season that the big guy has been in front since the collapse of the saguaro we originally had installed.

When the flowers open, I will try and get some close-up photos of some of them, It will be a challenge since the lowest buds are about eight feet off of the ground. Maybe I can get up on the ladder.

Click on the image to enlarge.

I brought this cactus from California just after we moved here over three years ago. I don’t know the name of this variety of cactus, but it has long arms that hang over the side of the pot. This is the first and only flower that opened up on this unusual cactus since it’s been here in Arizona. Click on the image to enlarge.

UPDATE: You can see more of this strange cactus here.