Desert In Bloom

One of the things I miss about NOT living in the desert, are the flowers. When I lived in Virginia, you could basically plant anything in the rich soil and it would grow.  My Mother would plant Tulips, Daffodils and Hyacinths.  We had pink, purple and magenta Azalea bushes and even a Dogwood tree. I think I took it all for granted.  In Florida, there were so many tropical flowers it was like you were in Cozumel or something.

In the desert however, everything is basically yellow and brittle and has thorns.

Lately, other bloggers have been posting pictures of the spring flowers that are in bloom in their area.  I constantly bitch talk about how in Phoenix, the desert, nothing pretty ever blooms.  But as the temperatures are quickly reaching the 90's, my desert flora has come alive and I actually noticed how pretty it all is, and it is NOT all yellow.  I grabbed my camera to share.

Prickly Pear cactus.  Thorny and yellow.  It is growing out of control.

Our Aloe Vera plants that traveled from hubby's Grandma's house.  If you pull of a leaf, and break it open, you have a 100% pure aloe.  It grows fast and like a weed.  We have sooo much of this stuff.  Want some?

Our Ocotillo (ok-oh-teeyo).  We have three of these and they are so pretty right now.  They're usually not this green, only when blooming the red flowers at the top.

This big fallacy grew out of our Agave plant within three weeks.  On the left is last week, and on the right is today. I was hoping we would get some huge beautiful red flower at the top, but alas, more yellow.  The male Agave plants grow these big stalks, this one took 8 years to reach maturity.  After it dies, the whole plant will wither and will have to dig it up.  Yep, it's thorny too,  We call it the broccoli plant. 

Our Purple Hibiscus.

Red Canna.  The most tropical plant we have.

Mexican Hibiscus.  This grows out of control.  In November, you cut it down to the roots, and within three months, it's bigger and bushier.

Orange Honeysuckle.  These are NOT like the white Honeysuckles in Virginia.  You can't eat the nectar.  It's very bitter.  Hubby laughed at me when I first tried, he had never seen anyone do that.

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This is a Bougainvillea.  We don't have one because they are very messy and drop their flowers everywhere.  And when you don't live in a forest, that is a big deal (apparently). So I'm not allowed getting one of these.  It is a vine that climbs up everything and gets HUGE.  They range from pale pink to magenta, to purple.  I LOVE them.

That's what's growing in our neck of the woods!