No, it's the time of year where I live when the prickly pear cactus puts on a dazzling show of bright greenish-yellow flowers. Especially when water has been plentiful and the sun is getting hot. Yes, we've had a very wet Spring.
You've seen the yuccas in out back yard. Well, in our desire to landscape with (mostly) plants native to this area -- which therefore need little special care! -- we planted some spineless prickly pear out at the end of our driveway. Here's what greeted me when I arrived home from work today.
Well, I just had to grab the camera and get some shots of the individual blooms. Here are four, side-by-side, all growing on one pad:
And here's a close-up on one particluarly pretty bloom:
Want to take a peek down inside the flower? Here's what it looks like zoomed in close:
And finally, a shot of a bloom that seemed to have more petals than most and was almost ball-shaped:
Lest I bore you, I'll stop there.
8 comments:
John, those cactus flowers are gorgeous!! Do you read Naomi, of Here in the Hills? She has a cactus garden you might like to see! Let me know if you want the link.
Very pretty. I love the intimate closeups of the stamen and pistels or whatever we used to call them in Botany 101. (I daydreamed a lot during that class.)
Super pictures.
Great pics John. I'd better not show them to my wife...or she'll want to move to Texas.
These are really great pics and I especially like the last one.
Not bad for flowers gone wild...
P.S. I thought Bubble was a girl panda...
I never think of Texas as being especially pretty - mostly hot and dry with a lot of those oil rig things covering the landscape. And I certainly never imagined that a cactus could have such beautiful flowers. Very interesting. You are educating me about your state.
Spectacular, John! Great pics.
And what a treat to come home to!
Xeriscaping is catching on up here in Dallas, too. Good on ya.
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