Flowers

Rosemary Flowers with Dewdrops

Here we are in the middle of November and the little Rosemary shrubs behind the RV drive (which goes around the house) are getting their little blue flowers. In this image (click to enlarge), the dew drops gather at the bottom of the petals to form little prisms/lenses.

The “dew drops” may actually be residual water droplets from the irrigation system that runs for ½ hour at 4AM to water the landscape flora.

We never have to shop for rosemary in the supermarket, since it is abundant and available year-round on our shrubs all around the rear of the house. Just look at the beautiful sprig in the photo. Image is from Bob’s Samsung S23 Phone Camera.

We’re still in “second spring” with day temperatures still in the high 70’s to low 80’s, but that will soon give way to our usual winter weather over the next few weeks.

July Flowers

July has always been a good month for desert cactus flowers opening. After only three days, this month gas been no disappointment. All the flowers shown below have opened on or since July first.

This first photo is of a peniocereusgreggii “Queen of the Night” flower, two of which opened up last night (July 2). They are short-lived like many cacti flowers and were mostly gone this morning. We were lucky to spot them last evening to get this photo.

These next beauties also opened overnight. They are “Cherry Red” (trichocereus) cactus flowers and look almost hot pink in the morning sun.

Our old reliable “Bishop’s Cap” cactus produces flowers many times during the year. We bought this cactus over 25 years ago in a three-inch plastic pot. These were open on the first of July.

The “Star Cactus” (Astrophytum) is also one of those that produce flowers several times a year. This flower also opened on July first.

Lastly, is our showy “Red Bird of Paradise” or “Pride of Barbados” shrub which will produce these brightly colored flowers from April through September. We have three shrubs in the courtyard.

That’s all for now. Click on any image above to view enlarged in a new window or tab.

Another Cherry Red Flower Opened

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.

Buckhorn Cholla Cactus Flower

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.

Spring Flowers Opening

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.