When It Finally Rains, It Pours

  Or, “How to Drown Your Cactus!’’ Keep in mind that we have been in a severe drought for, what, about six years? But today, June 18, the bottom fell out of a cloud, not once, but twice, serving up a quintessential example of the classic gully-washer/turd...

Cactus and Rain

  Cactus, being drought-tolerant plants, don’t like rain, right? Select ones may not, but it has been my experience that while cactus and succulents certainly survive without water, they thrive with it. In moderate amounts, of course. Give them a good rain shower...

A Toad in the Dish Garden

I was checking on a little cactus that was not looking too perky and had this feeling that I was being watched. And I was! Hunkered down in the gray-blue gravel, this mid-sized toad was quietly watching me,  no doubt hoping I would overlook him in his comfy...

Another Reason I Like Cactus

I walked out to the cactus bed while the sun was shining just right on this echinocereus, a claret cup hedgehog. The sun’s rays gave the blooms a lovely shine and iridescence. It almost looked surreal. I grabbed the camera and tried to capture the glow, but was not as...

Just a Few Odds and Ends

It is midnight and even though we have a beautiful full moon, it is still dark enough to make it hard to check the ID tags on these plants, but I wanted to share them with you. the weather has been an abomination and I am getting ready to attend a 50th year class...

The Blooming Season Has Begun

I think the cold weather may finally be officially passed. The cholla and prickly pear have ceased to droop and are putting on buds; the hedgehogs and rainbows are blooming, and one horse crippler has an early flower. This is the first week of May, the time my cactus...