Now that this giant saguaro is in place, we are going to decorate our landscape with shrubs and flowering cacti that will complete our visualization of the way this dream house should look. Below the giant cactus, we will have some shrubs planted in the strip along the driveway down to the road. In addition, there will be some flowering shrubs to the left of the saguaro. This is, in effect, the ‘before’ picture. Click on the image to enlarge.
This should give you a pretty good idea of the height of our saguaro cactus. I’m 5’8″ and Verna is right at 5′ tall. The saguaro is at least 13′ and growing. Click on the image to enlarge.
Verna was walking the dogs on the road this afternoon while I was standing in the courtyard watching her and the dogs as well as admiring our (new to us but really old) saguaro cactus. Saguaros generally don’t start sprouting “arms” until they are as much as seventy-five years old or more and this one has five arms with arm buds for seven or eight new arms.
We were quite lucky to get this cactus at the price we paid. It augments the southwestern “flavor” we were looking for in our Arizona home. Click on the image (that Verna took from the road) to enlarge.
I don’t have any shots of the landscape crew (2 guys) digging up the cactus in nearby Congress, AZ, but I think that the slideshow should depict the arrival, the root system and the process of placing it into the ground.
As we sat on the patio today, this colorful Gilded Flicker (colaptes chrysoides) helped himself to some of the seed bell we put out this morning. His mate (without the red cheeks) also helped herself to both the seed bell and a nearby seed feeder. We seem to go through a bell a day but the feeder lasts a few days before reloading. Click on the image to enlarge.
Notice anything different about our little house?
Verna took this (clickable) image this afternoon after the landscaping crew installed this 13 foot saguaro cactus in front of the house. In a couple days, I will post a slideshow of how they transplant a huge cactus like this one.
When they pulled up the driveway and I saw the cactus on the back of the truck, I turned to Verna and all I could say was “holy s–t!”
Verna is very happy with the new saguaro – there are several buds where new arms will eventually appear. There are also a bunch of flower buds where this cactus will produce several copies of the Arizona State Flower later this spring and summer.
