There is an agave flower stalk about four hundred feet east of our driveway. I don’t know the timing on agave flowers, but I imagine this will be sprouting flower pods in the near future. We have been watching the flower stalk grow over the past several weeks and today I estimate it to be about fifteen feet tall. I will be sure and get flower pictures when the agave finally starts producing them. Click on the image to enlarge.
While I was up on the hill at the back of our property last week, I found several more of the Arizona Queen of the Night cacti. This one, in particular, is very weird; the woody part of the cactus comes out of the ground at the lower left of the image and winds up and across the branches of a palo verde, then descends toward the right side of the image before splitting in two and connecting to two fleshy stems rising upward. Roll your mouse over the image to highlight the strange routing of this specimen.
Realizing that the image above is lacking in detail, I uploaded a larger highlighted image here. I also uploaded images of the other three queens I found up on the hill here and here.
Since I know that this variety of cactus has a ball root, I imagine the big one must have a whopper. I read somewhere the roots could weigh in at hundreds of pounds.
The ocotillos all over town are in bloom. I finally found an ocotillo near our favorite Mexican restaurant with canes low enough for me to get a close-up of the little red flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
We had the landscaper install an ocotillo a couple of years ago, but sadly it seems to have died. The plan is to get them to replace it this summer. Hopefully I can take this kind of picture next year in our yard.
When I learned that it is legal to move protected native vegetation on our own property without permission from the Arizona Department of Agriculture, I selected this nice little hedgehog cactus up near the north property line as a candidate to move to the lower lot. It has only four lobes and will probably be light enough for me to dig up and carry to its new location. Succulents can be quite heavy since they consist of hydrated flesh and can contain several quarts of water in each lobe.
As soon as this guy stops flowering in June, I will carefully dig around it to be able to lift it out of the ground and into the wheelbarrow for transportation to the lower lot. I took this photo this morning. Click on the image to enlarge.
I get these flowers for most of the year. It seems that the venerable little Bishop Cap cactus keeps on producing these after nearly seventeen years since we adopted it in a three-inch pot just before we got married.
The cactus had been transplanted three times and has lived with us in both California and Arizona and just keeps on giving us flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
Our travels took us to Surprise, AZ today to do a little shopping and a doctor’s follow-up appointment. The landscape in the parking lot of the doctor had a succulent (a type of agave, we’ve been told) in bloom. Near the bottom of the photo in the center is a tiny hummingbird gathering nectar from the flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
Ed – Thanks Crotalus for the correction on the flower type.
Spring and summer will give me plenty of subject material for my flower photos. I took this picture today of a neighbor’s cholla cactus. We also have cholla blooming on the upper lot, but it’s a bit of a climb to get up there with my camera. We have some cholla on the lower lot too, but they flower later in the summer. Click on the image to enlarge.
