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Cactus Flowers at the Nursery

Claret Cup Yellow (Generic Barrel) Cactus Flower

Bob and I went to a local nursery today looking for replacements for some failed sage brush in the courtyard. We finally bought some bottle brush bushes in five gallon pots that we will put in the ground in the days to come.

While we were there, I (of course) took some photos of the flowers that were opened on various cacti and other xeriscape flowering plants. I have been posting photos of pink flowers here this spring, since the pink ones seem to open first. At the nursery, there were other colors, too, most noticeably the red Claret Cup Hedgehog flowers and some bright yellow flowers on a barrel cactus that had neither its nickname nor a binomial designation, so it is a generic yellow-flower-producing barrel cactus at this point. Click on either image to enlarge.

We also bought another echinocereus cactus similar to hedgehogs that we have, that will produce red flowers. There are numerous flower buds on the cactus that will likely open soon. We need to pick a place to plant this cactus but will probably wait until after the flowers com to put it in the ground.

Slither Hither

Young Gopher Snake

Prior to setting up the tools and dumpster on the driveway for some yard work today, this smallish Sonoran Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer affinis) appeared on the driveway near the garage door that I had opened shortly before. It seemed to be headed toward the garage, but when I called Damsel out for this photo op, the snake suddenly decided to head off to the rosemary patch giving her a loud hiss before disappearing from view.

These snakes can be up to six feet in length as adults, but this one was barely two feet long. It had to be a youngster in snake years.

We like having these guys around the area because they prey on rats and other undesirable desert rodents. Sonoran Gopher Snakes are plentiful in the southwest. We have seen as many as ten of these in the five years of living here and only one rattlesnake, which I think is a good ratio. Also, only one Gila Monster sighting.

Hidden Hedgehog Cactus Flowers

Hidden Hedgehog Cactus

I don’t usually hike up into the hill behind our house, but today, Bob told me that one of the “hidden” hedgehog cacti up near the back property line had open flowers. So, I took my camera and foraged my way through the rocks and desert brush to get to a spot under the two palo verde trees up there to take this photo.

This is one of two clusters of hedgehogs still up on the hill (we brought one down to the front of the property last winter). There is a third, but it is actually on the neighbor’s property to the north. The other hidden cluster has buds on it, but is not in bloom yet. There are also many unopened flower pods on the cactus in the photo. Click on the image to enlarge.

Vernal Equinox

Vernal Equinox

I got this screen capture this morning over at Archaeoastronomy.com which has probably the best depiction of the orbital stations of the Earth relating to seasonal changes. The animated graphic nicely illustrates the concept of the Earth passing through the eight stations as it orbits the sun.

Coincidentally with the advent of spring, one of the hedgehog cacti I wrote about yesterday has two flowers open this morning. Damsel took this image of one of them. Click on the image to enlarge.

Hedgehog Cactus Flower

Spring in the Outback

Hedgehog Buds

By the term “Outback,” I mean neither the vast wilderness in Australia nor the not-so-well-known Arizona Outback, but the part of our little plot here in town up on the hill behind the house. Our outback is mostly still virgin desert with flora and fauna indigenous to the wild areas of this region.

I took a hike up there this morning to see if some of the flowering cacti were sporting spring buds – sure enough, this hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus) near the north property line has quite a few flower buds getting ready to open.

We seem to have several varieties of hedgehog cactus around the property. Two of the hedgehog depicted are in the outback and several that were either natural or transplanted to the lower part of the lot among the landscaping rocks. Most have pink flowers but some have flowers that are darker pink or purple. The Damsel will be sure and photograph the ones on the lower property and I plan to venture into the outback to capture photos of the ones up there. Click on the image to enlarge.

The First Cactus Flower of Spring

Beavertail Cactus Flower

In what is getting to be an annual tradition, here is the post recognizing the first spring cactus flower in our xeriscape garden. Of course, this is a Beavertail Cactus Flower (opuntia basilaris) growing just behind the wall out front by the road. The pink flower bud we saw this morning opened into this nice flower this afternoon and it already has attracted bees and other pollinators.

This is the last year for this cactus since it is one of those that developed a fungus or something that gives the paddles a circular depressed area that is discolored. We have other beavertail cacti, including one we imported from California, that are planted in the rock and cactus garden, so there will undoubtedly be more of these brilliant pink flowers next spring as well. Click on the image to enlarge.

Creek Bed Bank Line Reinforcement

Creek Bed

This is one of the projects that Damsel and I have undertaken to modify her rock and cactus garden on the west side of the property. This is to account for the effects of having built a retention wall adjacent to the RV drive that now diverts runoff from the hills to the north. After we built the wall last year, water now flows to the west of the property rather than across the RV drive as it has in the past.

In the image above, the west end of the wall can be seen at the right edge. We have started lining the edge of the little creek that formed last summer when we had a great monsoon rainfall last summer. The idea is to line the banks with rocks to confine the flow to within the creek bed near where the water comes out from behind the wall.

Further down the creek, the banks are less defined. We decided to use some very large boulders (seen at the left of the photo) to keep the flow going down the natural creek wash that was there before, rather than spilling toward the west where there are some decorations and the trash bins are over there too.

As you can see in the photo, we have partially completed the bank lining up near the end of the wall. Next, we will continue to bring more of the rocks and complete the lining from where the rocks end upstream to the boulders that are on the left. After that, we will dig down to where the original landscapers put the creek rocks five years ago.

We hope that we can complete this project a little at a time (rocks are heavy!) over the spring before the next monsoon season. Click on the image to enlarge.

Bed ProgressUPDATE: March 04, 2016 – Damsel and I spent an hour or so finishing the west bank of our little runoff creek today. We gathered small boulders and round rocks from other areas on the property and continued to line the far side of the creek with reinforcements for the runoff that we expect this coming monsoon season.

The top panel is the work we completed when we posted the picture above; the bottom panel is the work we completed this afternoon. Click on the image to enlarge.