The first of the Santana Hibiscus flowers opened this weekend. I love these miniature hibiscus hybrid flowers for their vermilion color and bright yellow stamens. Photo taken in the patio today. Click on the image to enlarge.

I can honestly say that this Pencil Cholla Cactus is growing in our back yard. Not our yard in California, of course, but on our recently purchased Arizona property. I took this photo on June 10th while we were on the property talking to our contractor about the placement of the house and RV pad.

According to Desert Tropicals, Pencil Cholla is also called the Desert Christmas Cactus due to its olive-sized red fruit that appears in December. The tiny flowers appear in the spring months and disappear in summer.

I’m really looking forward to having a cactus garden at the new place including this Pencil Cholla and one or two Palo Verde trees already on the property. Click on the image to enlarge.

From mid-spring until late fall, this beautiful shrub blooms continuously with these colorful flowers. I have loved them for years and I was very disappointed that they don’t grow well in California coastal areas. I brought one home from a nursery in Indio, CA, a few years ago but it didn’t take to our coastal weather. Now, that we’re going to live in Arizona, I’m looking forward to having them in our desert garden there.

The shrub is called “Red Bird of Paradise” or “The Pride of Barbados.” They are native to Central America, parts of South America and the West Indies. Desert Tropicals, a Phoenix based garden information website, has information on cultivation and care of these pretty shrubs. They recommend planting them six feet apart and after summer in November or so, to cut them almost to the ground to keep them compact. In mid-spring, they will grow quite rapidly to between six and fifteen feet high.

I took the picture above when we were in Arizona last week. Click on the image to enlarge.

After we returned to our California residence, we found that the white epiphyllum “orchid cactus” was in bloom. Once a year, these beautiful flowers adorn our garden. Click on the image to enlarge.

We traveled back to our California residence today, after a nice trip to our new home in Arizona. In our patio, I was happy to see that this year’s spider lily was in bloom. Click on the image to enlarge.

We’re in our new town in Arizona today. While Bob was in the post office doing business there, I went out to the cactus garden in front to photograph some of the cacti. There was one saguaro cactus in bloom whose flowers created a little window for the sunlight. I think this is a nice, artistic expression of the beauty inherent in desert plant life. Click on the image to enlarge.

We took a trip to the home improvement center a couple of days ago. There were so many beautiful flowers that I photographed in the garden shop that it was difficult for me to pick one out. I selected this bright red hibiscus to share with you on this late spring day. Click on the image to enlarge.

A workman from SoCal Edison installed a new SmartConnect™ electric meter on our residence today. The power outage was only a few seconds after the workman waited until the computers could be shut down. Other than resetting a couple of clocks, there was not much impact to us.

According to the brochure (pdf), the new meter eliminates the need for meter readers, since it communicates with the power company to report usage data. It’s sorta big-brotherish too, because of the two-way communications implications and wireless connection to “smart” appliances in the household. I’m not saying they will do it, but there is a real possibility that they will be able to shut off your air conditioning and other stuff. Given the current nanny attitudes state and federal officials have, we could be headed there.

From the brochure:

Smart meters collect hourly energy use data for the home and are capable of two-way communication. This means they can send and receive energy use and cost information from the home to the utility and back again, all through a secure wireless network.

Smart meters are also equipped with wireless radio chips inside to support home area networking. This will make it possible for the meter to communicate with “smart” appliances and devices, such as smart thermostats and refrigerators.

Emphasis mine.

I went into the patio today and saw that my peanut cactus had erupted with bright red flowers.

I look forward to late spring and early summer in our patio garden when the cactus flowers bloom. This flower is open today on my Bishop’s Cap cactus which is so named because of its shape. Click on the image to enlarge.

The early spring flowers that I had in the planters on the front porch were pretty much done for the year, so I went to the garden shop and got some Asian lilies for the planters. Yesterday, I went out the front door and I was greeted by this colorful flower. There will be more like this. Click on the image to enlarge.

We stopped in at the local home improvement center to get a few things for the garden. I just love going in the flowers and shrubs area in the springtime. There are always plenty of beautiful flowers on display. These flowers, according to the label, are Dahlia Dahlinova hybrids. Whatever you call them, they are sure beautiful flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.