Some of the bulbs I keep in the courtyard planter are starting to have flowers. This week. these freesias opened up. I expect to have paperwhites and daffodils soon. I will also have amaryllis and hyacinth flowers to post soon. Click on the image to enlarge.
The red flowers on the hedgehog cactus down the road by the bank are opening. We were shopping today and I took the time to walk over to the landscaped area where these were in bloom.
I hope everyone likes cactus flowers because this is the time of the year when we will be posting a lot of cactus flower images. Click on the image to enlarge.
My reliable Bishop’s Cap Cactus is adding to the springtime collection of flowers today. I think there were nine or ten of these nice flowers open this afternoon in the courtyard where this little barrel cactus lives. It is very happy here and gives me flowers almost all year long. Click on the image to enlarge.
In addition to this cactus, there are cacti allover the garden and the lot that are getting ready to open flowers. The beavertails (see yesterday) are opening new flowers every day and the cholla, hedgehog and prickly pear all show signs of flower buds to come soon. Stay tuned!
It’s not the first beavertail cactus flower we have seen open in the neighborhood, but this one is ours. It is on a little beavertail cactus we transplanted to my rock and cactus garden a couple of years ago. We have many such transplants, but this is the first one to have an open flower. Click on the image to enlarge.
There will be many more beavertail flowers over the next couple of months in our gardens and also in the wild up the wash near the back property line. Last fall, we brought four paddles from the wash and have them in the courtyard in pots. They also will have flowers any day now. I love spring cactus flowers!
Our flowering plum tree in the courtyard is getting more mature. All of a sudden over the past few days, the bare branches seem to be covered with these tiny blossoms.
I took several photos of the flowers today, most of them included bees busily gathering nectar. Between the plum tree, and the fifty rosemary bushes on the RV drive hill, the bees must be producing a lot of honey in hives somewhere near here courtesy of our flowering plants. The bees will be busy with some cactus flowers very soon. Click on the image to enlarge.
We had our first sighting of several spring cactus flowers this morning. Our neighbor’s property to the west has a lot of wild native desert cacti including this Beavertail Cactus (opuntia basilaris). We expect to have the beavertail cacti on our side of the fence to open with more vivid pink flowers. I’ll have some close-ups of those as soon as they open. I just LOVE spring cactus flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
We went to the discount department store yesterday to get a couple of things for the house. While we were there, I strolled over to their outdoor garden shop in the parking lot. They had lots of ready-to-plant flowers for spring gardens.
The little slideshow above shows some of the colorful flowers on display. Click to advance to the next (of four) photos.