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!

Unlearned Lesson ~ Memorial Day

Rosa 'Peace'

Of every year

The little valiant

Flags appear

On every fallen

Soldier's grave--

Symbol of what

Each died to save.

And we who see

And still have breath--

Are we no wiser

For their death?

~Dorothy Brown Thompson~

Happy Easter

Rosa 'Tiffany'

The fasts are done; the Aves said;

The moon has filled her horn

And in the solemn night I watch

Before the Easter morn.

So pure, so still the starry heaven,

So hushed the brooding air,

I could hear the sweep of an angel's wings

If one should earthward fare.

~ Edna Dean Proctor

Happy Holiday Cactus

Happy Holidays from Arizona!

Independence Day

I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery.

~Author Unknown

Rescued

Haworthia limifolia variegata

I'm not really a Haworthia fan, but in April I picked up several Haworthia species at a benefit sale held by our local Cactus and Succulent Society. One of the members had been severely burned in a house fire, and had been in a coma for close to eight months. He was an avid Haworthia collector and hybridizer, and his plants went without care in the months he had been hospitalized. Although his collection was located outside, many were scorched from the intense fire. Even some of the plastic pots the plants were in had partially melted. The club decided to hold a benefit sale of his huge collection to help raise money for his astronomical medical costs.

It was very sad to see all those scorched and neglected plants for sale, knowing all the time and effort he had put into them over the years. Many members of the club and the public purchased the plants, which were really cheap because of their obvious neglect and fire damage. I picked up several Haworthia species, mostly to benefit the poor man. I've since spent some time learning about the Haworthia genus. It was amazing that the plants made it through the scorching and eight months without water. Once I got them home and started a watering routine, the plants almost immediately grew new green leaves, and seem to be thriving.

There are hundreds of species in the Haworthia genus. They need light shade, especially in Phoenix, and prefer to be kept dry in the winter months. H. limifolia needs regular watering in summer, but it can be over watered if not careful and can easily suffer from root rot. Even if this happens, the plant can be washed off, and started in fresh soil. There's a good possibility it will re-root. H. limifolia needs protection from frost in winter, but other than that, it can live outdoors all year.

From the tag included with these plants, it appears the previous owner was trying to cross H. limifolia with H. viscosa. He had his own code, so it's impossible to know for sure, but I believe this is good guess. The man is still in a coma after nine months, but I'm sure he would be heartened to know many specimens from his precious collection are being cared for by numerous people across the Phoenix area.

Memorial Day

We Remember

Happy Easter

Easter is not a time for groping through dusty, musty tomes or tombs to disprove spontaneous generation or even to prove life eternal. It is a day to fan the ashes of dead hope, a day to banish doubts and seek the slopes where the sun is rising, to revel in the faith which transports us out of ourselves and the dead past into the vast and inviting unknown.

~ Author Unknown

Florescence

The first flower to open on this Eriosyce kunzei ‘multicolor’, is just the florescent pink color I expected! To read more about this water sensitive cactus, see my previous post about it.


For each petal on the shamrock

This brings a wish your way--

Good health, good luck, and happiness

For today and every day.

Happy New Year ~ 2008

May the longtime sun shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure, pure light that's within you
Guide your way on

~ Traditional Blessing

New Year's Eve Reflections

On the eve of the New Year, I always spend time reflecting on the past year, but today I ran across an old photo and I was transported back to an early summer afternoon well over a half-century ago when I was about four years old. My hair was sun-bleached from hours spent outside each day, and my hands were dirty and stained from planting orange tree seeds that never came up and from picking low hanging fruit from the mulberry tree. I ate those berries as I skipped around the garden, hurrying from one plant to another, taking in the fragrance of carnations, wild roses, anise, and parsley. Every minute seemed to bring a new discovery.

I watched butterflies, birds, lizards and even mice, and saw some fairies lurking more than once. I gathered black walnuts in a little tin can, breaking the nuts open with a stone while sitting on a tree stump. After a long, glorious day, I headed back to the house at sundown. As I rounded the corner, my mother snapped this slightly out-of-focus photo of me, now faded in spots by time, but still a reminder to me of that halcyon childhood day.

After spending decades tied up with all the normal events of life; getting educated, married, kids, career, successes, failures, tragedies and triumphs, good times and bad, and finally, retirement, I see I'm back to doing those same garden things I did as a very young child, albeit without the skipping and fairy sightings. I now have time once again to enjoy the wonder of nature, and it still enthralls me. I think I've come full circle.

When I remember by-gone days
I think how evening follows morn
so many I loved were not yet dead
so many I love were not yet born.
~ Ogden Nash

Christmas

Christmas Eve

Poinsettia In Candlelight

The Present Hour

Zephyranthes candida

One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year. He only is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with worry, fret and anxiety. Finish every day, and be done with it. You have done what you could.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Thanksgiving

In Flanders Fields

Poppies by danielemusella Morgue File

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

~ Colonel John McCrae

When I was young, everyone wore a paper “Buddy Poppy” on Veterans Day. The sales proceeds from the poppies helped living veterans in need, veteran’s widows and widowers and children. The Buddy Poppy was a tribute to those who had given their lives for the nation’s freedom.

This tradition has since changed, and the poppy has become a Memorial Day symbol for remembering and honoring military personnel who died serving their country. Veterans Day is to thank and honor all those who served honorably in the military, whether in war or peace, as well as those who died.

Regardless of the current practice, I decided to do both today.

Oooooooooh….Blue Ghost!

Since this is Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, I thought this would be a good day to show my Pilosocereus azureus, or Blue Ghost. Sometimes called Pilosocereus pachycladus, this cactus, with its beautiful pale blue coloring, can appear almost ghost-like on a moonlit night. As it gets older, the bottom portion can get brown and woody. As you can see in the photo, each stem isn’t all blue. This is a typical appearance for this cactus.

This columnar cactus can reach 30 feet tall if placed in the garden, but it is very frost sensitive, so I keep mine in a container. It makes a nice focal point in a potted cactus garden, planted with a variety of cacti. It enjoys full sun, but it also does well in very light shade. I’ve kept this cactus garden on my patio, and it’s obvious by the way the cactus is curving that it really wasn’t getting enough light, and had started growing toward the sun. It’s now in proper light.

P. azureus has yellow spines, and is winter dormant. It needs very little water in winter. During the growing season, it produces large, white short-lived night-blooming flowers with a very strong, sweet fragrance that attracts moths needed for pollination.


With our large population of Hispanics, Day of the Dead rituals and celebrations are common here on November 1 and 2nd, as is the Dia de los Muertos symbolism, usually in the form of skulls or skeletons. This tile mural of two of the departed celebrating and sipping Margaritas is typical. This mural, hand fired in Tucson, Arizona, is on the wall of my outdoor barbeque area.

For Gardeners on Labor Day

Eucalyptus kruseana

RESULTS AND ROSES

The man who wants a garden fair,

Or small or very big,

With flowers growing here and there,

Must bend his back and dig.

The things are mighty few on earth

That wishes can attain.

Whate'er we want of any worth

We've got to work to gain.

It matters not what goal you seek

Its secret here reposes:

You've got to dig from week to week

To get results or roses.

~ Edgar Guest

Moment of Remembrance

Day is done
Gone the sun
From the Lakes
From the hills
From the sky.
All is well,
Safely rest.
God is nigh.
Fading light
Dims the sight
And a star
Gems the sky,
Gleaming bright
From afar,
Drawing nigh,
Falls the night.
Thanks and praise,
For our days,
Neath the sun,
Neath the stars,
Neath the sky,
As we go,
This we know,
God is nigh.