Home & Garden

It is springtime in the desert and I never get tired of posting pictures of cactus flowers. Our bishop’s cap cactus is blooming again. Twelve or more flowers are open this afternoon on this cactus that we bought in a garden shop near Phoenix back in 1998; at the time the little barrel cactus was in a two-inch pot and badly in need of transplanting. I took it to California, put it into a six-inch pot which it eventually outgrew. Today it’s in an eight-inch pot and will soon be in a twelve-inch or larger pot to continue to make flowers in our courtyard. Click on the image to enlarge.

We have been having a wonderful array of spring cactus flowers here in town. I took many of the images in the slideshow here in our yard, although some in other yards here in town. The cactus types are hedgehog, Argentine Giant, prickly pear, beavertail and cholla. Click on the slideshow above to advance through the ten-image array.

There are so many flowers opening this month that it is hard to decide which photos to post. Today’s winner is this image of two side-by-side beavertail cactus flowers. They will be gone tomorrow or the next day, so we will enjoy them while we can. Click on the image to enlarge.

We have been expecting the hedgehog cactus flowers to open just after the first few days of spring. Well, they’re starting to open. The first two were open yesterday and a third one opened today. It looks like another will be opening tomorrow, too.

We’re still waiting on our beavertail cactus flowers which should start to open soon. Click on the image to enlarge.