October 30, 2008: The Cactus Garden in Summer

I don't grow any vegetables through the winter at my Arizona home. I might try a few in pots this year, but I haven't had much success with the greens I've tried to grow in the past. My gardens are mostly cacti and oleanders, and most of the cacti bloom after I've gone back north for the summer. So last spring I left a digital camera with my neighbor, and he took photos of them as they blossomed. I had never before known just what I was missing!








And here are the two cacti that bless me with their beauty before I have to leave them:


7 comments:

  1. Glade to hear you made it to your winter home. I guess Mr. H got his wish for the 5 hour walmart stop in a round about way.

    Beautiful baby & cacti blooms!

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  2. Those are really pretty blooms you have there. That looks like a plant my grandmother had that she called bunny ear cactus. She'd take it inside every fall and bring it out in the spring. I never saw a bloom on hers.

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  3. Most of these cacti were given to me. I haven't bought many since the death of the first two summers! The gorgeous hot pink in the bottom picture is a beaver tail cactus, the yellow is a prickly pear. I was astonished at the color and size of those orange-red ones, as I thought they were prickly pear too. Those flowers must be 6-8" across! I'm taking the potted one back north with me next spring, that's for sure. I'll have to find my cactus book and see if I can identify the others, now that I can see the blossoms.

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  4. Them are pretty nice cacti ya got there! I don't like them at my house, cause you know......I have a habit of getting into them at times.

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  5. I came in contact with one this morning. One of the pups must have managed to place a 1" barbed cactus spine in my outdoor rocking chair. I want out in my pajamas and robe, cup of coffee in hand, and sat down. And jumped back up. It was stuck into the back of my thigh and it didn't want to let go!

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  6. Have a blogger buddy who lives in AZ and he takes the most amazing photos, lots of them cactus/flowering cactus. I never knew they did that or that they could be so beautiful.

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  7. The first few years we spent here, I thought it was an ugly, barren wasteland. Now I see so much beauty in the desert! My eyes had to be retrained to see that beauty doesn't always equal green. Here it's more about texture and contrasts, and the occasional burst of color that is so unexpected and beautiful it makes ones soul soar.

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