INTO THE VALLEY OF THE SUN

I spent the last weekend in the Valley of the Sun, and sunny it was. How I love those winter desert days. Cool sunny mornings warming up to a perfect afternoon.

This is rather a quiet time of year for flowers, even in Arizona, but I did find these sunny little flowers on the golden barrel cactus.

It is always a surprise to see frost damage to plants. In my son's neighborhood this lemon tree was not the only plant to suffer from some very cold nights. Bouganvillea, ficus, and even a few agaves suffered badly this year. Like the weather all over the country, it has been a colder winter with more frost days.

Even with a busy schedule at my son's house we still found time to visit the Phoenix Botanical Gardens. I hope that by visiting my grandchildren will learn a little about gardening in the desert and desert dwellers past and present.

The girls learnt how native peoples used to grind their seeds using a metate.

My six year old grand daughter took advantage of an empty docent table to tell us what she had learnt.

The entrance way to the gardens has some fabulous tiered, stonework.

A bed of Manfreda 'macho mocha'. Now there's an idea

The tall giants of the garden.

Love those golden barrels.

The boojum, named for Lewis Carroll's 'Kingdom of the snark'.

Gorgeous aloes.

My alter-ego just couldn't resist doing a little weeding. Then it was time to go to the shop.

I wonder how many other people go away for the weekend and bring back a bag of pumice an agave and a few cuttings (the latter from my son's garden).