We had occasion to do some shopping today and while we were in the supermarket, I noticed they had lots of pretty roses including this salmon-colored variety called “Movie Star.” I got a dozen of them and put them in a vase with some baby’s breath on the sofa table. They have a light, rosy fragrance and should last the three days before our regular shopping day on Thursday. Click on the image to enlarge.
A little over a week ago, I posted a picture of flower pods on one of my Pride of Barbados (a.k.a Red Bird of Paradise) shrubs in the courtyard in front of the house. Yesterday and today, the bottom pods opened up to reveal my favorite Arizona flowers.
This is the third year since we planted the one-gallon shrubs and this year is the earliest we have seen flowers open on them. Some other Red Birds around town were opening already, so I assume as the shrubs mature, they will open earlier in the spring. We shall see next year. Click on the image to enlarge.
I took photos yesterday of some flowers on display outside the little department store on the west side. The one depicted above is a drought-tolerant variety of daisy called “Arizona Sun” (Asteraceae Gaillardia). According to several on-line sources, this flower attracts butterflies and after the flower petals fall off, they attract goldfinches.
Dave’s Garden has this additional information about this colorful flower:
Sun Exposure:
Full SunBloom Color:
Red
Red-Orange
Bright YellowBloom Time:
Mid Summer
Late Summer/Early Fall
Mid Fall
Blooms repeatedlyFoliage:
HerbaceousOther details:
This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds
Average Water Needs; Water regularly; do not overwater
Self-sows freely; deadhead if you do not want volunteer seedlings next season
Click on the image to enlarge.
Not unsurprisingly, the Arizona Queen of the Night cactus on the west side of the lot has developed three flower buds. One is quite prominent at this time, with two smaller buds in the offing. To highlight the three buds, roll your mouse cursor over the image above.
Last year, we had three beautiful flowers open on this little cactus and now we are expecting three more. There is another Queen in our back yard up on the hill, but it is in a place where I would be unsure of myself hiking up there after dark to photograph the flowers. If the flowers last until morning light, we may be able to get photos of them as well.
Today was grocery shopping day. After getting home and putting the groceries away, we decided to take a little ride around town so I could get some photos of the desert spring flowers currently in abundance. This is a Spring flower slideshow. Click on the image to advance through the following flowers and things:
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.
Happy Mothers Day!
We noticed that a new flower opened on one of the beavertail cacti in my rock and cactus garden today. It is very unusual for a flower to open this late in spring. All of the other beavertails in our garden stopped getting flowers several weeks ago. I guess this one is a special flower just for Mothers Day. Click on the image to enlarge.