saguaro cactus blooms
Terri Webster Schrandt

The Flower Hour #13: Desert “Florals”

It’s time for the Flower Hour!

flower hour badge

This time, last year, we visited the Scottsdale/Fountain Hills, Arizona area—the desert in winter.

Taking my dog for walks is the only form of exercise I can engage in, but it’s always worth it, walking around my brother’s neighborhood.

Desert décor and landscape are always interesting to see. Soon after the holidays, many aloe plants were still sporting their holiday décor.

aloe vera cacti

Around another corner, the prickly pear cactus blushes profusely at being seen so early in the morning.

desert cacti
Prickly Pear Cacti

And if one is lucky and the timing is right, the saguaro cacti show off their bouquets.

saguaro cactus blooms

For the Flower Hour, share your images of flowers, gardens, fields of flowers, seasonal leaves and plants, blossoms, berries, and wildflowers. Bouquets and silk/faux flowers are welcome.

There are no specific themes for the Flower Hour, but please use your own photography. And you have all week to link to this post.

Sharing for Lens-Artists: Around the Corner

New to The Flower Hour photo challenge? Please check out my page for more information! I encourage “double-dipping” with other blog challenges if you do not want to create a separate post.

“In a world full of flowers, be a cactus.” – Kul Bhushan Negi

graphic

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107 comments

  5. Wow, 92 comments, Terri FP is a huge success! Congratulations. I’m linking it to this week’s Over a Cuppa. It won’t be long here until I have new pics to add to FP on a regular basis. I love your spectacular blooming saguaro. Unless you catch them at the right time, you never realize how beautiful they are in addition to being stately.

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  19. Here in San Diego for a couple of days (family obligation), I noticed a story on the local news that the superbloom is spectacular in the desert, and its early. I hope Phoenix is getting some of those beautiful desert flowers as well.

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  20. I’ve never seen Prickly Pear Cacti, and such a lovely rosy color! The blooming saguaro cacti is stunning, and thank you for sharing such beauty I don’t normally see. 🌵💗🏜️

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  28. Oh, I like these cacti and also how you describe them Terri. 🙂 How clever to put the Christmas bulbs on the tips of the Aloe’s “arms”. I didn’t realize that Prickly Pear Cacti had a pink tone to them. I was surprised to learn that Prickly Pear Cacti survive our sometimes brutal SE Michigan Winters. My mom had cacti on the windowsill for years – two miniature gardens and had a miniature saguaro.

    Here is my post from Sunday with the pollinator magnet, updated with your post:

    Winged Wonders.

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      • You’re welcome Terri. I could get into seeing the cacti and the clever desert holiday decor instead of our usual Winter. A friend of mine retired and moved to New Mexico and after years of living in Michigan, he was excited to never have to shovel snow nor cut the lawn again. He sent me pictures of big cacti and small pebbles instead of grass at his home. We got 4 inches of snow today – it just stopped snowing at 10:00ish. It is 17 degrees, with a “real feel” of -12. Brrr!

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      • I remember my friend sending me a photo of himself in the backyard, reading a book – he said “it’s 102 degrees, but it’s dry heat.” Hmm. He moves to Las Cruces, NM as he suffered from SAD and researched to find the place in the USA where there were the most sunny days in a year. I thought San Diego had the most-perfect weather, but Las Cruces had more sunny days. He spent the Winter there, learning Spanish, living in an apartment – he had his own marketing biz so worked there – his wife retired the following year and they bought a house and moved there permanently.

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      • Yes, that is true. His wife was not keen on the move as she preferred four seasons and had family here – he had no family, but after he got COVID and passed away, she sold the house and moved back to Michigan. Well, warm air and sunshine sound lovely – we are in this horrible icy, snowy Winter and back in the Deep Freeze tomorrow again until the end of the month they say.

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