All three of my Caesalpinia pulcherrima shrubs in the courtyard are now producing flowers. I took this close-up of one of the flowers this afternoon.
The individual flowers only last a day or two, but the racemes have dozens of flower pods opening from bottom to top which gives the appearance of having perpetual orange, red and yellow flowers in the courtyard. We have the colors all summer and into the fall.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Of all the dozens of spring flowers on our big saguaro out front, these appear to be the last two unopened buds. Sometime in the next few days, they will open, get pollinated and then wither while the stems swell to become saguaro fruit, just like the dozens of other flowers that preceded these two flower buds.
The fruit on this saguaro and the last big cactus that sat in this spot never amounted to much, since the birds peck on the fruit to extract the nutrients inside. It’s all part of the desert life cycle and we like it. Click on the image to enlarge.
No, not a poker hand . . . These are three flower stalks currently growing on the native “Queen of the Night” (Peniocereus greggii) cactus up on the hill behind our house. This cactus is growing under a palo verde tree up near the northeast property corner.
The location of the cactus is unfortunate for us since it is a steep climb to get to the level where it is growing. Moreover, since these bloom exclusively at night, we likely won’t be able to see them open because of the following factors:
There are a couple of other Peniocereus greggii growing in more accessible locations lower on or near our property, but neither of them have mature flower stalks at this time. Damsel managed to photograph open flowers on one of them last year.
I am going to hike up there each morning to try and keep an eye on this cactus in order to possibly catch an early morning-after photo or two before the flowers eventually fade. Wish me luck.
Click on the image to enlarge.
UPDATE (20 Jun 2016): I went up on the hill this morning at about 0830 and found that two of the queen buds had bloomed overnight and were closing in the morning sun. The third flower should open after dark this evening. Click on the image to enlarge.
When we returned home yesterday, this pair of flowers greeted me when I went into the courtyard to water the plants that had been neglected for a few days. I say neglected because we weren’t here to water them, but we see evidence that there was at least one moderate rain shower while we were away – tell tale pockmarks on the soil suggested a fairly good shower albeit with no evidence of flooding or running water.
As for these flowers, they are the second batch of buds that showed up on this cactus this spring. Last year, this cactus had flowers opening most of the spring and summer. We are eagerly anticipating a repeat performance this year. Click on the image to enlarge.
Even though some of the Pride of Barbados (a.k.a. Red Bird of Paradise) shrubs elsewhere in town have had flowers for a while, the first week in June seems to trigger my three shrubs in the courtyard to open their flowers. It was this week a year ago that my first Red Bird flower opened.
Some places, like the Caribbean islands, enjoy this shrub all year long, but since we have frosts, the shrubs go dormant after summer and fall. We are glad to have them when they have flowers like the one above.
From Wikipedia:
[Caesalpinia pulcherrima] is a shrub growing to 3 m tall. In climates with little to no frosts, this plant will grow larger and is semi-evergreen. Grown in climates with light to moderate freezing, plant will die back to the ground depending on cold, but will re-bound in mid to late spring. This species is more sensitive to cold than others. The leaves are bipinnate, 20–40 cm long, bearing 3-10 pairs of pinnae, each with 6-10 pairs of leaflets 15–25 mm long and 10–15 mm broad. The flowers are borne in racemes up to 20 cm long, each flower with five yellow, orange or red petals. The fruit is a pod 6–12 cm long.
I do not know the name of these white wildflowers that grow beside US 60 near Wickenburg and in the Arizona Outback, but they are sure pretty in spite of the unfriendly-looking thorny vegetation just beneath the flowers. These were growing near the Wickenburg Dog Park where we took the puppies today for one of the last springtime romps before the summer heat makes such visits uncomfortable for us and the dogs. Click on the image to enlarge.
Not sure of the binomial name of this cactus variety, but they sure have nice flowers. These are located in a garden adjacent to a car repair facility on Wickenburg Way, just across the Casandro Wash, about a quarter mile south of our house. We were on the way back from a weekend shopping trip to the grocery store when we stopped the truck and I got out to take some pictures of these nice cactus flowers. The cactus is similar to the golden torch cactus we brought from California which didn’t do well here in the desert. Click on the image to enlarge.