Desert Garden

Not to be confused with the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, this post is about our home garden in Scottsdale. Not as grand or expansive as the former, it’s still pretty amazing, particularly at this time of the year when the desert plants sport their spring colours. Yards and gardens in Scottsdale have evolved considerably over the past 20-25 years, particularly in the north end of the city. Manicured lawns and palm trees are not part of the landscape anymore. Rather, residential properties blend in with the surrounding desert. Grass has been replaced with raked stone and indigenous plants dominate the gardens. It’s a better fit with the natural surroundings and the flora, primarily cacti requires very little watering. Every picture was taken within the confines or our property, beginning with this first shot of a flower that blossomed  just this morning. It has been enjoying it’s first and last day in the sun. It will be gone tomorrow. It’s the flower of an echinopsis cactus, this time a pink one. Beautiful isn’t it.

Rather than include a lot of flowery text, I’ll simply show the remainder of today’s photographs as a slideshow. It includes a variety of plants; colourful flowers and striking cacti. Click on the right side to advance the pictures; on the left to reverse direction. Hope you enjoy.