Happy New Year 2010!

Rosa 'Don Juan'

And ye, who have met with Adversity's blast,
And been bow'd to the earth by its fury;

To whom the Twelve Months, that have recently pass'd
Were as harsh as a prejudiced jury--

Still, fill to the Future! and join in our chime,
The regrets of remembrance to cozen,

And having obtained a New Trial of Time,
Shout in hopes of a kindlier dozen.

~ Thomas Hood

A Sunny Christmas

Old Man of the Andes (Oreocereus celsianus)

Every year at Christmas time

There's not a sign of snow.

Instead we spend our yuletide days

In the sun's warm cheery glow.
We have the best of Christmas things,

The lights, the gifts, the bells,

(And "snowbirds" who arrive en masse

To fill our resort hotels.)
The glorious weather fits right in

With our happy Christmas mood,

And we can also walk and run

Without having to be snowshoed.
So don't feel bad for your desert friends

Who have no snow or ice.

We think our sunny Christmas here

Is a holiday paradise!

By Joanna Fuchs

Happy Holidays!

Suited to Arizona

Macfadyena unguis-cati (Cat's Claw Vine)

One of the reasons I bought a couple of Cat's Claw Vines 15 months ago was that this popular vine is well suited to Arizona and notoriously fast growing, and I wanted something to break up the monotony of the high, unpainted block walls that surround my very large back yard. Well, no fast growth in my garden! After languishing as a single, six inch stem for months and months, in late November this plant finally decided to grow. (The other one is alive, but barely.)

The Cat's Claw is a self-climbing vine that attaches itself to a wall with tiny claw like structures. It tends to get top-heavy if not pruned regularly, and can come loose and topple. If that happens the only way to get it to self-attach again is to cut it to the ground. At the slow rate it's growing in my garden, I won't have to worry about that for quite awhile.

This vine is so tough it can take full sun on a south wall, is hardy to 15 degrees, drought tolerant and takes reflected heat. In spring, it has trumpet-shaped yellow flowers for a short period of time.

Geococcyx californianus (Roadrunner)

Recently this Roadrunner decided to stop his food gathering for a minute to rest on my courtyard pony wall. Although I snapped this photo through the window glass and screen of my home office, it's clear enough to see its coloring and size.

Roadrunners are ground cuckoos with some strange characteristics. It is especially suited to the desert as it has a nasal gland the eliminates excess salt, and it reabsorbs water from its feces before excretion. It is so fast it can catch a humming bird in midair!

The roadrunner's diet includes insects, scorpions, lizards, snakes, rodents and birds, but in winter when small animals and reptiles are harder to find, it will eat some plant material. This bird will go after rattlesnakes and kill them by whipping them around and slamming the snake's head until it dies, then it swallows the snake whole, digesting it a little at a time--half in--half out. Kind of a disgusting bird when you think about it!