Backyard Nature Wednesday: Bloomin' cactus
It reveals itself very slowly. In the early morning hours, it begins to unfurl its petals. By mid-day it is about half opened. Mid-day as seen from the side. Finally, in mid-afternoon, it reveals its full delicate beauty. I confess I don't know what variety this cactus is. It is one of several in a little planter that I bought a few years ago at a plant and gift shop in the little West Texas town of Terlingua when we were visiting Big Bend National Park there. This one has bloomed faithfully for the last couple of years and it's now blooming again. That big one next to it, the one with the wicked spines, also bloomed last year and I'm hoping for an encore in coming weeks. Since I brought it home, the planter has lived mostly on a table on my patio. The first winter that I had it, we did have some quite cold weather for a while and I did bring it inside then, but other than that it has lived outdoors and seems quite happy there, even though we hardly duplicate the desert co...