We went to the dessert nursery today to get some shrubs for the courtyard. Our sage bushes have been failing, so we decided to replace them with something else. We bought some little shrubs similar to bottle brush that have red flowers.
While I was at the nursery, I took some photos of their flowers. This yellow Ranunculus (I think) was one of the prettier non-cactus flowers that I saw today. Click on the image to enlarge.
We have already had several of our beavertail cactus blooming with their pink flowers, but now, the hedgehog that we transplanted from the back of the property to down front where we can see ti, is currently showing several of its own pink flowers.
The other hedgehogs here down below have buds but no flowers yet. We are looking forward to seeing those real soon.
Elsewhere in the rock and cactus garden, there are several varieties of prickly pear cacti with numerous buds that will soon be showing their yellow flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
Our neighbor, Tim, that lives across from us did a job last fall clearing some property for a construction project. Two of the victims of that clearing of natural desert vegetation were ocotillos that Tim brought for us to add to our xeriscape rock and cactus garden. We planted them at that time and today, we noticed that new flower pods are growing on the tips of the ‘canes’ of the ocotillos. This is very good news since the two of them went into shock and lost their green leaves a while after we planted them.
Now, we will see these flower pods grow and produce the little red and yellow flowers characteristic of the ocotillo. After that, the monsoons to come will likely restore the green leaves that these two lost over the winter months. Click on the image to enlarge.
We went shopping today and since the flower department has bunches of tulips and Gerbera daisies, we bought a bunch of each. When I got home, I placed them in a vase on the dining room table. I took this close-up of one of the Gerberas. Click on the image to enlarge.
This is one of several clusters of paperwhite flowers now showing in the courtyard bulb planter. The tiny (½ inch) buds are closely related to daffodils which are in the same planter but have not come up as of yet. Perhaps they will in a week or two. The temperatures have turned very spring-like for mid-February. Click on the image to enlarge.
