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Velvet-pod Mimosa (Mimosa dysocarpa)
I saw these gorgeous wildflowers for the first time Saturday on our way to Madera Canyon (more pix from that trip here). Learn more about them from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. See other posts for Cee’s Flower of the Day photo challenge here.
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We love our striped roses (#FOTD)
Today’s entry in Cee’s Flower of the Day photo challenge is a bud from our Rock & Roll rose. This poor thing has suffered through two moves and a ridiculous amount of neglect. We bought it in Southern California in about 2012. We dug it up in 2013 and stuffed it in a pot when we moved to Flagstaff, then planted it in our backyard, where it was abused by grasshoppers all summer and froze all winter. We eventually moved it to the front yard, where it would get more attention and better soil. Then when we moved to Tucson in 2020, we dug it up and stuffed it in…
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Pincushion cactus flower in Sabino Canyon outside Tucson, Arizona (#FOTD)
Sharing another photo from hubs’ and my attempt to hike in Sabino Canyon a week or so ago (see a few more pix from that aborted hike here). Note to self: do not hike at midday in Tucson in the summer. Sad that I have to leave myself notes about something that should be obvious to anyone with an IQ higher than a cactus, but here we are. Before we slogged back to the car to avoid heatstroke, we snapped a few pix of the local flora, including this adorable pincushion cactus. It’s just a phone pic, and taken in the bright midday sun (see aforementioned note to self), so…
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Photos from Sabino Canyon Recreation Area (#FOTD)
Hubs and I visited Sabino Canyon for the first time yesterday. We only made it about a half mile on the trail before the heat sent us scurrying (OK, plodding) back to our air-conditioned car. I hear tell there’s a lake and running water further up the trail, but we’ll see that another time, when it isn’t in the 90s and monsoon-humid. Hot or not, it was lovely out in the desert. We’ve had tons of rain–the wettest July on record–so the desert is lush and green and smells of fresh rain and creosote. The cacti are plumped up, and we even saw tadpoles in a puddle along the trail.…
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Passion flowers at the Tucson Botanical Gardens (#FOTD)
Long-suffering husband and I visited the Tucson Botanical Gardens yesterday for the first time since December (see pix from that trip here and here). We’re having a wet monsoon season, so we hoped for lots of flowers–and got our wish. Their butterfly garden includes these wonderful passion vines twining around the trunks of huge mesquite trees. I love the intricate detail of passion flowers–so lovely after a couple of months of dry, scorching heat. Posted for Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge.
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Bloom on an organ pipe cactus, Stenocereus thurberi (#FOTD)
Yes, I’m back with yet another cactus blossom for Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge. This one is on the organ pipe cactus in my front yard. Organ pipes are somewhat rare in Tucson. They’re native to an area southwest of here in the borderlands of Arizona (USA) and Sonora (Mexico). They even have their own national monument, named, fittingly enough, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Tucson is supposed to be a little too cold for them, but apparently the one in my yard doesn’t read botanical texts or garden guides. It just grows happily in front of my house, making magnificent blooms like this one. Or this one: Learn…
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#FOTD: Dragonfruit blossoms
For Cee’s Flower of the Day photo challenge, my neighbor’s dragonfruit blossoms, taken during my morning walk yesterday. Dragonfruit plants are scraggly and ugly, but dang, their blooms are spectacular. Here’s a closeup of the center. My husband says it looks like it has an alien bursting out of it. He’s kind of right.
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#FOTD: Blooming prickly pear
Yes, it’s another bloomin’ cactus (with a bonus bee!) for Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge. I snapped this pic on my morning walk in the neighborhood last week. Most prickly pears aren’t much to look at most of the year–and then they bloom, and I understand why almost every yard in Tucson has at least one.
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#FOTD: Blooming saguaros
If you’re a regular here in my little corner of the interwebs, you probably know I’ve become smitten with cacti and especially our enormous, whimsical, and occasionally ridiculous-looking saguaros (see this post and this other post for examples). Well, now my favorite form of desert flora is floriferous, or, to put it less pretentiously, the saguaros are blooming! When they bloom, they look even more whimsical/ridiculous. I think the blooms, especially the ones on the main part of the plant, make them look like characters on The Simpsons. See? Or maybe like they’re carrying multiple bridal bouquets. And maybe I’ve lost my mind. Want to see lots of pretty flowers?…
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#FOTD: Lemon blossoms in our Tucson backyard
My mother always cooked with lemons. We had a lemon tree in our backyard when I was growing up in Northern California, and it produced lemons by the bushel basket. She even left a huge bag of lemons on the front seat of my car when I was in college, so my dorm-mates and I could make fresh lemonade. That activity was a wholesome departure from our usual shenanigans. The house we bought here in Tucson came with a sad, neglected lemon tree. We’ve been pampering it since we moved in–giving it lots of water, mulching it with compost, and, in my case, whispering sweet nothings to it as though…
Janet Alcorn
Suspense | Horror | Romance
