Home & Garden

Maintenance Day

Maintenance Day

Here I am on the roof of the “Albatross” (our California house) sawing off a dead palm frond. I also sawed off three palm berry pods. Our eventual plan is to have the four palms removed from the property, but that won’t happen until next summer when some new financial arrangements will have been made.

In the meantime, we have to make trips to take care of some of the maintenance items. Damsel removed most of a prickly pear cactus that fell over since we last were here. It’s a pain for now, because we have to remove ourselves from our beautiful Arizona home to attend to matters here.

A Vendela Rose

A Vendela Rose

Since I already have the great room vase filled with Asian lilies, I brought the other vase with a dozen of these beautiful Vendela Roses into the office. We have often bought this variety of creamy white roses. So pretty. Click on the image to enlarge.

Christmas Cholla Cactus

Christmas Cholla Cactus

I was in the outback (the undeveloped part of our lot) trimming back a mesquite tree and getting rid of the dead branches. When I was done with the mesquite, this Christmas cholla cactus was exposed. It has nasty spikes and colorful berries that are covered with glochids. This individual plant is about three feet high and a diameter of four feet. It is one of several in the outback, which I would like to remove except for all the hostile features that a good set of work gloves won’t keep out of your hands.

FireFlyForest.com has quite a lot of information on this cactus (cylindropuntia leptocaulis), but no mention of how to remove them. They are an Arizona native species and are a “protected native plant (salvage restricted)” whatever that means. Click on the image to enlarge.

Giant Asian Lilies

Giant Asian Lilies

The lilies we bought last week have opened up and to my delight, they are HUGE. The span across the petal tips is about nine inches. Like lilies on steroids, or something. I wish we could transmit the wonderful fragrance of these pink beauties over the internet. Click on the image to enlarge.

Red Amaryllis

Red Amaryllis

Two of the four amaryllis buds opened today. These are very bright red in color. After these have opened and are gone, there is another flower stalk on this plant with more red flowers to come! Click on the image to enlarge.