Spring brings out blossoms on most of our cacti, shrubs and trees. The Arizona State Tree is the the Palo Verde. This is a photo of a tree in the wash in full bloom. A close-up of some individual blossoms can be seen in the inset. Click on the image to enlarge.
Last night, the flowers started opening. I took this image this morning of the first flower. As I post this, the second flower is opening and I will get a photo of it in the morning. A third flower pod will probably open in a few days. Click on the image to enlarge.
This Schlumbergera is one of the first houseplants I bought locally for the Arizona house. Even though it’s popular name is Christmas cactus, this one seems to have its flowers in April like an Easter cactus. No matter, though, the flowers are very pretty. Click on the image to enlarge.
I posted a photo of this cactus last week with a single open flower. Today, we were delivering a package to Mom’s retirement ranch when I saw these flowers open on the same cactus. Wow! How beautiful! I love spring in the Desert. Click on the image to enlarge.
It is springtime in the desert and I never get tired of posting pictures of cactus flowers. Our bishop’s cap cactus is blooming again. Twelve or more flowers are open this afternoon on this cactus that we bought in a garden shop near Phoenix back in 1998; at the time the little barrel cactus was in a two-inch pot and badly in need of transplanting. I took it to California, put it into a six-inch pot which it eventually outgrew. Today it’s in an eight-inch pot and will soon be in a twelve-inch or larger pot to continue to make flowers in our courtyard. Click on the image to enlarge.
We have been having a wonderful array of spring cactus flowers here in town. I took many of the images in the slideshow here in our yard, although some in other yards here in town. The cactus types are hedgehog, Argentine Giant, prickly pear, beavertail and cholla. Click on the slideshow above to advance through the ten-image array.
We stopped on the way back from a visit to Mom at the retirement ranch and I took this photo of a flowering buckhorn cholla. This one has many blooms on it. The buckhorn cholla in and around our yard have a few open flowers, but not as many as this one. Click on the image to enlarge.
Snippet from eNature.com:
Opuntia acanthocarpa – buckhorn cholla
The main trunk of this tree-like cactus is short and erect; branching open and low to ground. Branches are cylindrical; the joints light green.
Habit: native perennial shrub; succulent stems, in segments 4-20 in (10-50 cm) tall by 0.75-1.25 in (2-3 cm) diameter; new growth is gray-green to purple-green; old growth has rough, scaly, brownish black bark.
Flower: delicate, lemon yellow to copper to red to pink, 2-3 in (5-7.5 cm) wide.