I saw several prickly pear flowers on a cactus near the post office in town today. I just love springtime in the desert! Click on the image to enlarge.
Flowers
White and Pink Amaryllis
This amaryllis isn’t as bright nor was the lighting as good when I took a photo of a flower exactly one year ago today, but this one is still very pretty in spite of those things. I planted the bulb on the side of the California house last year and today there were two amaryllis flowers open. Click on the image to enlarge.
The Recycle Center
Having a photo of an iris flower on a post about the recycle center might seem a little weird, but in the case of the county recycle center at the landfill in Palos Verdes, CA, there are pretty flowers all around. In fact, the South Coast Botanic Gardens is located just across the boulevard at the site of another landfill. Since the county maintains the garden, I assume they also provide the landscaping for the Recycle Center, although there are more exotic plant species over there.
Image: Iris flower at the Recycle Center. Click image to enlarge.
As for recycling, we brought 2½ 33 gallon-sized bags of crushed aluminum cans for which they paid us around sixty-five bucks. They also take glass, numbered plastics, newspaper and used motor oil. Even though we aren’t greenbats, we do believe recycling is a good thing, especially if we get some cash for doing it.
Flowers on a Mesquite Tree
Today was shopping day in the Valley (Surprise and Glendale, AZ). We were in the parking lot of a store in Glendale where the mesquite trees were flowering like crazy. We don’t get as many flowers until later in the spring at our higher elevation in Wickenburg. Click on the image to enlarge.
Prickly Pear Trio
These are three flowers on a prickly pear cactus up the road from our house. New flowers are blooming every day, so expect more pictures of them. I love spring and the desert. 🙂 Click on the image to enlarge.
Ocotillo – Signs of Life
At the end of rather inhospitable looking spikes on the canes (stems) of the ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) planted in front of the house, some flower buds are beginning to appear. Our ocotillo has been dormant, but now we’re hoping that the monsoons will bring it back to actively producing leaves and flowers.
Currently, three of the canes have flower buds. Two of them have bigger buds than this, but are too high for the camera without a step-ladder. I’ll have more pictures when the flowers become mature. Click on the image to enlarge.
Wikipedia says this about the Ocotillo:
For much of the year, the plant appears to be an arrangement of large spiny dead sticks, although closer examination reveals that the stems are partly green. With rainfall the plant quickly becomes lush with small (1-2 inch) ovate leaves, which may remain for weeks or even months.
Individual stems may reach a diameter of 2 inches at the base, and the plant may grow to a height of 30 feet. The plant branches very heavily at its base, but above that the branches are pole-like and only infrequently divide further, and specimens in cultivation may not exhibit any secondary branches. The leaf stalks harden into blunt spines, and new leaves sprout from the base of the spine.
The bright crimson flowers appear especially after rainfall in spring, summer, and occasionally fall. Flowers are clustered indeterminately at the tips of each mature stem. Individual flowers are mildly zygomorphic and are pollinated by hummingbirds and native carpenter bees.
More Hedgehog Flowers
One of the two hedgehog cacti in front of the house has several open flowers with more to come – you can see the cactus with its blooms and a close-up of one flower in the inset. Click on the image to enlarge.