The Blooms are Coming!!!

 The Cereus Cactus are getting blooms on them.  I can't wait.  They are night bloomers but I get here early enough that I see them in the mornings.  I don't remember how long it takes from this point but I just noticed these and there are 5 between two of the cactus.  So exciting!

 Here's another one and you can see behind it is yet another!

Not sure what this is going to amount to on this little guy, maybe this is all it does?  I have been watching this develop for a while now wondering if it will bloom or if this is it's thing.  This is the Peruvian Old Man Cactus.

Here is a shot of one side of the front planter- it was just planted up so it is going to take a while to fill in but I like the way it looks.  Shonna did most of the design/placement, I must give credit where credit is due.  Here we have a  mix of things and I think they all compliment each other nicely. The Furcrea gives it nice height I think.  Other plants in there are the Hamelia (which the hummingbirds have been all over by the way), Variegated Sedge, Delospermum Ice Plant, Queen Victoria Agave, White Salvia leucantha, Crassula Silver Dollar, Tecoma stans, Calandrinia, and  Schizocentron.

Here is a shot of the outer bed- it is not finished but it's a start.  The Mystic Spires Salvia are going strong and the Chocolate Mimosa I think adds a nice tropical touch to the bed.  We put a few grasses in there and two different types of Caesalpinia- the yellow form of the Pride of Barbatos and the Bird of Paradise.  I like the yellow and the purples together so I threw in a Buddleia with purple blooms to round it all out.  I am not done, still have to mulch etc... but I like the way it is coming together.  I will do close ups of the blooms and post but it is just too sunny right now to capture them nicely.

Chilly Morning!!!!

It is chilly out there today!!!  I felt it roll in yesterday, it was as if someone turned on the A/C, it just rolled in nice and cool and was rather refreshing.  This morning it was still chilly and it feels fantastic.  We were rumored to get some rain, though it went right around us as sadly is often the case.  We got a bunch of new items in the nursery this weekend that I am going to feature on today's post.  

The first photo is Yucca baccata and Agave a. medio-picta. They are both really unusual looking to me.  The Agave in particular I think is really extraordinary- I have not seen anything like that.  I was really excited to see that one come off the truck.

This is the Trichocereus c. hybrid.  

I can't wait to see what this bloom is going to look like. 

Speaking of blooms I can't wait to see open.... I have these on my watch.  This particular cactus has two blooms, the one in the photo above and this one below.  This is the Cleistocactus strausii.

They are both different colors- can't wait to see how they turn out.

This cactus looks like it is covered in a web of sorts, it is called the Peruvian Old Man Cactus.  It has big long thorns but not tons of them, just a few spread out but they don't look like anything you want to mess with.  I don't have a lot of experience with cactus but am learning a lot.

These I think look far better in person.  I could not get a good shot of them but I do like the way they gradually get larger.  I tried all different angles, but was not able to get what I think is a really good shot of them.  They are called Trichocereus terscheckii.

And last but not least is the Barrel Cactus- they are getting ready to bloom- this is a bloom I have seen before and am anticipating seeing again.