The Astrophytum Ornatum cactus by the back patio offered another beautiful flower today. They come and go so quickly that I was lucky to get this shot when the flower was completely open. In the morning, it was still just a bud, but by early afternoon it had closed up again. It may open again tomorrow, but we will probably be on the road to see our newest grandson.
We were lucky enough to have watched these Arizona Queen of the Night flowers steadily growing on the host cactus since a few weeks ago. Tonight, I walked out to see if the buds were open yet, but they weren’t. They definitely looked as if they would open, so later, I ventured out again, well after dark, and saw them fully open. Click on the image to enlarge.
This flower opened on our big saguaro cactus out front this morning. Most of the flowers had come and gone in June, but last week we noticed a new flower bud. When I say last of the summer, I mean for this cactus, as there are others in town that will likely have more flowers to come. Maybe even this one will have more, but I doubt it.
Since the cactus is very tall, in order to see inside the flower, I had to take this shot from across the driveway with the telephoto lens. Canon SL1 settings: F8.0, ISO 100, Shutter 1/500 sec., Focal Length 300mm.
I took this photo from the courtyard looking east toward the Hieroglyph and Wickenburg mountains. There were still a lot of thunderclouds built up in the distance which I thought would be nice to frame behind our ocotillo and saguaro out front. Click on the image to enlarge.
The weather looks to still be likely thunderstorms in the area tonight and perhaps tomorrow, but the rest of the week looks like it should be sunny and warm (100°). I, personally, am hoping for lower humidity since the monsoons have the desert feeling more like a sauna bath or an old Navajo sweat lodge.
I was sitting in the great room when I noticed a black spotted butterfly browsing on one of the red bird of paradise shrubs in the courtyard. I grabbed my camera and went out front hoping to get a shot of the butterfly and flower.
When I got outside, the butterfly flew away at first. After a few seconds, it circled back to the same shrub it had been browsing and resumed. I took several shots of it while it did its thing, this one being among the best photos I got. Click on the image to enlarge.
We bought this “star” or “monk’s hood” cactus at a succulent show in California about eight years ago. It cost four dollars and was in a three-inch pot at that time. It has been transplanted to larger pots and is now in an eight inch pot sitting behind the patio adjacent to the RV drive.
Two flowers opened this morning and are the first ones to open since we have had the cactus. The flowers are about four inches in diameter. There are three more flower buds on the cactus that should also open.
Astrophytum Ornatum is native to Mexico, but seems to like it here in the Arizona desert. Click on the image to enlarge.
Intuition, or something, drove me to hike up the hill out back to see how the recovering Arizona Queen of the Night cactus (peniocereus greggii) was doing. When I arrived at the spot where the cactus lives, I was greeted by a flower stalk and a bud that looks as if it may have bloomed after dusk last night. I say that because of previous experience with another specimen that had flowers elsewhere on the lot two years ago. The image at the link shows two flowers opening and a third that was open the previous night.
It’s too bad that this cactus is located in a part of our desert lot that is marginally accessible, even in daylight. Naturally, there is no way either of us would think of trying to hike up there after dark, even to see something as spectacular as these flowers.
The good news is that the Queen Cactus (image) on the hill recovered from the microburst incident last summer where a limb from a palo verde tree fell on it. Click the link to see all the new growth on the cactus, some of which we plan to relocate/transplant to more accessible places in the lot.
