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A little over a week ago, I posted a picture of flower pods on one of my Pride of Barbados (a.k.a Red Bird of Paradise) shrubs in the courtyard in front of the house. Yesterday and today, the bottom pods opened up to reveal my favorite Arizona flowers.

This is the third year since we planted the one-gallon shrubs and this year is the earliest we have seen flowers open on them. Some other Red Birds around town were opening already, so I assume as the shrubs mature, they will open earlier in the spring. We shall see next year. Click on the image to enlarge.

I took photos yesterday of some flowers on display outside the little department store on the west side. The one depicted above is a drought-tolerant variety of daisy called “Arizona Sun” (Asteraceae Gaillardia). According to several on-line sources, this flower attracts butterflies and after the flower petals fall off, they attract goldfinches.

Dave’s Garden has this additional information about this colorful flower:

Sun Exposure:
Full Sun

Bloom Color:
Red
Red-Orange
Bright Yellow

Bloom Time:
Mid Summer
Late Summer/Early Fall
Mid Fall
Blooms repeatedly

Foliage:
Herbaceous

Other details:
This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds
Average Water Needs; Water regularly; do not overwater
Self-sows freely; deadhead if you do not want volunteer seedlings next season

Click on the image to enlarge.

The Pride of Barbados (a.k.a. Red Bird of Paradise) shrubs in the courtyard are coming up much faster than they did last year. This stem’s flower pods will likely be opening very soon, about a month earlier than last year.

Neither of the other two Red Bird shrubs have any flower pods. This shrub has this almost fully developed pod stem and another tiny one that will be coming along soon. This shrub was the last one to have flowers a year ago. My, how things seem to change from year to year.

All three shrubs were installed in June of 2011, so this is their third spring/summer in the courtyard. Click on the image to enlarge.

The first of many flowers on our big saguaro cactus out front opened today. The tops of the cactus are twelve feet up in the air, so I got out the telephoto lens and took this photo from across the driveway. As you can see, there will be many more flowers soon. We hope to have flowers opening daily for the rest of spring and maybe into summer.

From 50 States dot com:

In 1901 the saguaro’s blossom was adopted as the official territorial flower, and later, in 1931, it was confirmed as the state flower. The saguaro cactus typically blooms in May and June. It is one of the most unique state flowers, and is characterized by having a waxy feel, but fragrant aroma. There may be hundreds of flowers on a saguaro cactus that bloom just several at a time over a period of more than a month. The saguaro flowers have a short life; they open at night and close permanently during the next day. Many of the blossoms will become pollinated and, later in the summer, the flowers become red-fleshed fruits that are enjoyed by the local bird population.