SPRING IS HERE AGAIN!

 It seems the arrival of spring flowers has jogged me into writing a post. This, after an absence of 11 months. I don't know what happened. Maybe it was being away from my garden for 3 months last summer, or the daily walks and hikes which take up most of the morning. Maybe it was the long breakfasts after the morning exercise... they certainly eat into your day, or maybe it is my shortening attention span for everything I do. Could it have been our purchase of a new trailer and the planning it takes to book campsites. Or was it quite simply the ease of posting a few pictures on Instagram and the scrolling that goes along with it. Sheer laziness?

So here we are, our third spring in the desert. It has been a magnificent winter with lots of warm sunny days but no rain all winter long. My newly acquired rain barrels filled up during a rain in November. I emptied the contents into 50 gallon milk jugs and used the rest. Since then not a drop. And no rain in the desert really means no rain and no spring wildflowers. Of course we have a drip irrigation system but it has been very difficult judge how often to run them. I fear not often enough. Even with all that warmth the budding of leaves and the opening of cactus flowers did not happen earlier. It has been right on schedule. 

For any gardener seeing that first green leaf begin to unfurl brings enormous relief. Relief that the lack of rain did not kill it. The first to break were the two Wonderful pomegranates, purchased for $5 each from our power company. The one from the first planting produced one tiny pomegranate last year, too late in the season for it to mature. This year I have counted 14 flowers on that tree and one is starting to swell. Undoubtedly I will have to protect it from birds and wandering javelina. This morning I noticed 1 flower bud on the second pomegranate, planted a year later than the first. 

The next, of the deciduous trees to begin leafing out were the desert willows. Similarly purchased from TEP. I have 4 of those all of which are coming along nicely. We removed a Texas olive from this spot in favor of desert willow. 

And another deciduous Sonoran tree is the Arizona wild cotton, Gossypium thurberi. Growing to about 10' 

this tree was nearly eradicated because of a fear of the boll weevil which had attacked the cultivated cotton fields. It turned out it was not the same weevil and the cotton tree is now returning. I first saw it growing at Tohono Chul garden and was able to buy one from their garden shop. I look forward to its pretty white blooms later in the spring. 

   

                                                                Arizona cotton tree

                                                               Cotton tree bloom from last year.

And then the cactus begin their spring routine. They sit quietly all year until the first buds start to appear. At this point they need to be checked every day as if you blink you can miss them. 

Yesterday the first bloom on the ladyfinger cactus, Echinocereus pentalophus, followed today by two blooms on another plant. 

And then a cluster open on another plant.

When we moved here I brought a number of plants with me. One was the Myrtillocactus geometrizans, or

bilberry cactus. I had planted it alongside the garage, far too close to the wall. Unfazed it began to send out arms and last year produced a pup and yesterday I noticed flower buds. This morning when I took David over to show him one of the buds had opened. It is not showy as many cactus flowers are but certainly welcome. 

A purchase last year at Tohono Chul plant sale. 

                                                           Echinocereus engelmannii

It is a great time of year for the aloes to bloom and for the first time in its life the Aloe vera, I brought with me in a pot and planted in the ground, is blooming. I found the perfect place for it alongside the fence where there was another Aloe vera clump. Both have produced many pups. 

The large stand of giant aloes in the back garden have bloomed with one side taller than the other. I can only assume that the uneven growth is due to the lack over overall watering provided by rain and one side receiving some irrigation water. I would love to divide this aloe but it looks like a daunting task which would likely damage the symmetry of the plant. 

It is visited by the hummingbirds and Gila woodpecker. 

New blooms on the mammillaria open in tiers every day for several weeks. 

There is sure to be something new every day and it looks as though tomorrow it will be the first flowers on the Gymnocalcium baldianum.