Lots of paperwhite flowers blooming in the courtyard. Good sign that warmer temperatures are coming. We might have some showers by the first of the week which the flowers (and all of the desert) will appreciate. Click on the image to enlarge.
I will have photos of daffodils very soon. They have started to appear at the flower concession at the supermarket.
We saw, but did not buy these beautiful Miltoniopsis Orchids in the flower concession at the supermarket last week. I did not have my camera, so Bob had to use his little pocket camera he carries most everywhere to get this picture. Click on the image to enlarge.
A short article in Wikipedia describes this variety:
Miltoniopsis, abbreviated Mltnps in horticultural trade, is a genus of orchids. It consists of 5 species, native to Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombia. They are named after Lord Fitzwilliam Milton, an English orchid enthusiast. Miltoniopsis’s common name is Pansy Orchid.
Although the flowers are similar, Mitoniopsis differs from Miltonia by having one leaf to each pseudobulb, and a lobed column that is united to the labellum through a keel. In addition, the column is not concave at the base.
I planted two amaryllis bulbs a few weeks ago. Today, the first set of flowers opened. I took this photo in the courtyard so there would be sunshine on them. Click on the image to enlarge.
The flower stalks are starting to open in the other pot I planted. I will update this post when I have photos of the other ones.
The really hot days of summer are now over, it seems, with forecast highs ONLY in the 90’s. Some of the cacti around the yard are opening flowers like spring has sprung. This is typical of this time of year which the locals (and that includes us) refer to as “second spring.”
The photo above is the last flower of many that opened on our Devil’s Tongue Barrel cactus over the summer. We brought this cactus from the old place in California, put it in the ground here and it has been happy ever since, having grown to twice the height and a significantly larger diameter than when it arrived. Click on the image to enlarge.
I don’t know the name of the tree in the Hawthorne, NV, RV park where we stayed last night, but it has these pretty poof ball flowers in bloom. Tonight, we’re in the foothills near Reno, NV, where there are no flowers, just pine cones.
I was in the courtyard this afternoon looking for photo ops when I noticed a hummingbird browsing the Devil’s Tongue cactus in Verna’s rock and cactus garden across the RV driveway. I had the telephoto lens on the camera, so I shot several frames of the little bird doing its thing. This was the best of the shots. Click on the image to enlarge.
This cactus came with us from California when we picked and chose what was coming with us. There is also a golden barrel close by that came with us. A second Devil’s Tongue is a few yards away and aspiring to grow into the large stature of the other cacti we brought.
