This is a very pretty flower on what is called a ‘fish hook’ cactus. The cactus is a barrel type with spikes and spines similar to the ‘Devil’s Tongue’ that we have in the patio here at home. I took this photo on the grounds of the Casa Grande Ruins near Coolidge, Arizona.
The red color of these flowers contrasts nicely with the yellow colors of the pollen stems in the center. Click on the image to enlarge.
I planted an umbrella tree in one corner of the yard a few years ago to provide a barrier between our yard and the neighbors. It does the job quite nicely, but, as you can see in the “before” panel above, it’ got a little out of control. Exacerbating the control problem, a group of several California palms popped up behind the umbrella, next to the wall in back. Many people consider this variety of palm a weed – in this case, it’s true.
For the “before” picture, Damsel posed me next to the garden project just as I began to whack away with the branch cutter and chain saw. Two green bins worth of tree parts later, she snapped the “after” picture. It was more work than it appears. The palms were a bitch to clean up, all intertwined and always with the little razor sharp spikes catching on stuff (luckily, I escaped any of them snagging a chunk outta me). Eventually, I will remove the palms completely, before they start moving the block walls.
Remember that little squirrel that kept popping up in people’s pictures on the web? Somehow, that little guy managed to get in the “after” picture. Maybe he was hiding there before – you just couldn’t see him through the thicket.
I’m not sure of the name of the succulent that produces these tiny flower clusters. It grows on the patio in a little planter shaped like a cowboy.
The flowers are only a quarter of an inch (0.6 cm) across and the entire cluster is only three-quarters of an inch (2 cm) across. Up close, though, they appear to be big and beautiful. Click on the image to enlarge.
Today, we went to the South Bay Orchid Society‘s show and sale at the South Coast Botanic Gardens. I took about 128 images of the beautiful orchids but I can’t show them all. It was very difficult to pick the 15 images for this slide show, so these were randomly picked.
We were at Lowe’s this afternoon getting some birdseed and garden supplies. While we were there we shopped around looking at the pretty flowers. Well, we weren’t the only ones interested in the flowers. This little guy browsed these little purple flowers long enough for me to get a half dozen shots of him. This was the best of the lot. Click on the image to see full sized.
My stapelia gigantea, currently in bloom, has two of these nasty, hairy, stinky “carrion” flowers, seen here complete with pollinators – the only ones that are attracted to the decaying flesh odor of the flowers. I used my canon sx110 in telephoto mode to capture this shot, thereby avoiding the stench at closer range. Click image to enlarge this disgusting thing.
I posted this since I know Sig94 likes these.
The yellow flowers of the Devil’s Tongue Barrel Cactus have been coming out in our patio garden for several years. A few weeks ago, we bought another Devil’s Tongue we saw in the garden shop. Although we knew that the Devil’s produced pink flowers, we did not know until just this week that the new cactus was going to have pink flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
