Springtime Blooms – Arizona and Alberta
My Place in the World is in the Garden with my camera!
The best part about living part time in Arizona is that I get to experience spring twice! In April, when Alberta might still be experiencing snow storms, our Arizona home is at the height of spring blooming!

Olneya tesota – Ironwood tree
We have a large old Ironwood tree on our property. It is estimated that these trees can live for hundreds and hundreds of years. It sheds its leaves annually just before it blooms. The flowers are pea like (because it is a member of that family) and the entire tree becomes a dusky pink colour during full bloom.

Carnegiea gigantea – Saguaro Cactus
The Ironwood often serves as a backdrop to the giant Saguaro cactus. The Saguaro can live for 150 to 200 years and it can grow 40 to 60 ft tall (12 to 18 meters). It is very slow growing and can be decades old before it sprouts arms or blooms.

Opuntia – Prickly Pear Cactus
The Prickly Pear cactus is the ‘rat’ of the neighbourhood for the simple reason that the resident rodents live in holes under the prickly shelter of this plant. We have a large specimen that isn’t actually on our property, but it thinks it should be. We have to carefully ‘prune’ it off our property every few years.

Trichocereus candicans – Argentine Giant
My favourite cactus is the Argentine Giant. It is a common enough looking cactus with multiple stems up to 24 inches (60 cm) tall. The wow factor is when it blooms. The white flowers can be 6 to 8 inches across (15 to 20 cm). The flowers come out at night, and only last about 24 hours.
A week after my Argentine Giant bloomed, I was back in Alberta where an extremely long and cold winter had finally ended. The last of the snow had just melted, and the earth quickly exploded with greenery.

Puschkinia libanotica – Striped Squill
The first flower to bloom was the Striped Squill, a starry pale blue and white flower that is only about 4 inches (10 cm) tall.

Scilla siberica – Siberian Squill
Another squill, the Siberian Squill, mingles with the Striped ones. Neither Squill seem anxious to expand their territory much, but they might simply be unable to compete with the other residents in that location – the prolific Grape hyacinths (Muscari).

Forsythia Northern Gold
The only other flower blooming right now is a bush – the Forsythia Northern Gold. I’m expecting great things from this fast growing bush. In addition to spectacular early blooms, it should help a lot with the task of masking the silvery wall of The Car Guy’s new quonset metal garage.
This week’s WordPress Photo Challenge is Place in the World.
What blooms in your part of the world each spring?
Beautiful! Lovely that you get to enjoy Spring twice. I think we are going from winter right to summer this year. 50s this morning mid-80s in the afternoon.
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Apparently that happened here too. The spring melt was very fast this year.
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Breathtaking beautiful flowers. Your photos are amazing.
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Thanks E.C. My photos are no more amazing than yours!
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Aw Margy, you made me smile. Thanks so much for making my day. 🙂
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Those photos are beautiful Margy! My husband’s and my bucket list include getting to Arizona to see those huge cactus!
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There is so much to see in the ‘two faces’ of Arizona. The desert region is home to the big cactus. But the mountains and valleys make up more than half of the state. The largest Ponderosa Pine forest in the United States is in Arizona. The state is home to the Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Hoover Dam and Kartchner Caverns – to name just a few places! And when the Grand Canyon is closed for the winter due to snowfall, Phoenix and areas south can be warmly pleasant to hot as you know what!
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The ironwood picture is fascinating. Not sure I’ve seen one before.
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The Ironwood tree isn’t all that remarkable looking until it blooms! Most years we have missed the blooming season, but this year we caught it!
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