We drove around on two different days looking for the cacti that were starting to bloom. We went out on the first day of our trip and again on the last day. They are really lovely and such wonderful colors....varieties of yellow, orange, and pink and red. They were still not fully blooming on that last drive, but we saw quite a few. I would probably get the names all wrong without my sister sitting next to me, so I will not try to identify them. We were trying to get as many different colors of the Cholla cacti as we could. There are also Prickly Pear and Ocotillo and Hedgehog and more.
The Palo Verde trees were blooming and you see a sea of yellow everywhere you go.
There are 3 basic kinds.....Blue Palo Verde, Foothills Palo Verde, and Mexican Palo Verde. The Blue Palo Verde have 5 yellow petals and look very golden in color, the Foothills have one white petal and appear more pale yellow over-all, and the Mexican have one orange petal....I have a photo below of one of those.
This was an unusual one that we only saw at this one house. Haven't looked it up yet.
These are the Mexican Palo Verde flowers...see the 1 orange petal. They were just beginning to bloom and the Blue Palo Verde were about done. I never got a close-up of the Foothills Palo Verde with the white petal.
This pale pink was behind the darker one above. Some of the houses had really gorgeous plantings. We were shooting these while driving around in a car....Mike shot a lot of these photos.
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10 comments:
WoW! That was an amazing tour of the Cactus flowers and more.I love all those different shapes and colours of the Cactus.
HI Mary...Those Cactus blooms are just stunning...what a sight to see they are gorgeous colors!
Thanks for sharing these desert beauties!!
Grace
What a stunning post Mary. The most impressive cactus collection I have yet see, a simply wonderful range of colours and shapes. A really remarkable botanical post.
Seeing those cacti in bloom takes me back to when my Mom and Dad lived in Arizona! Amazing blooms.
You got to see a lot of cactus blooms! Your photos are awesome! I want to get out this week and try to shoot some. I love it this time of year!
A lovely post Mary and some really artistic images.
Hi Mary, you took a lovely series of cactus blooms here. I love all the different kinds. I remember the Cholla and Ocotillo cactus from my trip to the southwest a few years ago but was not at the right time for blooming. Great post!
Seeing them blooming like that is just no comparison to the small plants you see blooming in pots around here. I can see April would be a wonderful time for a trip to Arizona. I never dreamed there were so many different kinds and colors of them.
What a huge assortment!!! I had not realized there were so many colours and sorts of cactus blossoms!!! I love those palo verde trees!!
Oh, I love these. Amazing how beautiful they are. There were some fields down home that had some of the prickly pear cacti...I think their blooms were yellow, with a read or orangy red center. Always surprised me to think they they grew down there. And wonder how they got started. It was just a few here and there...nothing like these.
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