These are so beautiful – Trichocereus Grandiflorus a.k.a. “Cherry Red” cactus opened up this morning in the courtyard. There are more buds on this and other cacti in the yard and we may be getting more of these striking blooms over the next few weeks. Click on the image to view larger.
This is another case of “accidental stereo photo” when Verna’s camera captured a couple of photos while the truck was in motion, this time crossing the local railroad tracks near downtown Wickenburg. The train in the photo is stationary on the siding next to the main track to the right of the siding.
You will need to use your 3D glasses to view the above anaglyph (stereoscopic) photo. For your convenience, the 2D photo is shown below in case you don’t have your red/cyan glasses handy.
A couple of years ago, a Cholla Cactus sprout appeared in the xeriscape on the west side of the house toward the front. At the time, we decided to let it grow where it sat. I took the first photo below about a year ago and posted a 3D picture of the little cactus then.
Cholla Cactus One Year Ago
Today, as I walked around the property, I took the next photo below of the growing cactus. It seems to be growing quite rapidly, and a closer inspection of the cactus shows more “branches” beginning to sprout.
The Cholla As It Looks Today
From the other blog:
Opuntia acanthocarpa – buckhorn cholla
The main trunk of this tree-like cactus is short and erect; branching open and low to ground. Branches are cylindrical; the joints light green.
Habit: native perennial shrub; succulent stems, in segments 4-20 in (10-50 cm) tall by 0.75-1.25 in (2-3 cm) diameter; new growth is gray-green to purple-green; old growth has rough, scaly, brownish black bark.
Flower: delicate, lemon yellow to copper to red to pink, 2-3 in (5-7.5 cm) wide.
Two Cherry Red (Trichocereus Grandiflorus) flowers opened up this morning. These are the first of this season and we are expecting more as spring goes on. Click on the image to enlarge.
Verna sent me up into the wash behind our house on the west side to fetch a plastic water bottle that had blown in or washed in from the construction up on the hill behind our house. I did as she said and retrieved the bottle but while I was up there, I saw this nice cactus flower. I used my Samsung Galaxy S23 phone camera to catch this photo of the flower.
The flower is blooming on a Buckhorn Cholla Cactus, which is growing in the wild in our back yard. There are a lot of these open today on the several Buckhorn Cacti, but this one seemed to be the prettiest.
Click on the image to enlarge in the image viewer.
Since we were late to the grand flower opening at home this spring, we may have missed some of the cactus and other blooms in our xeriscape garden, but, not to worry – there are plenty more flowers coming soon. Verna snapped this photo today of a prickly pear cactus flower on the west side of our yard near the fence line. There were several flowers open today and there will be many more over the next few weeks.
Keep an eye out for more flowers when they show up here.
