July Bloomday!

I’m cheating. What with the Fling just wrapping up and spending an extra day with Mark, Gaz and Gerhard I knew I would not have time to do a proper Bloomday post. Instead I’ve decided to celebrate the right toasty and sunny weather we’ve been having here in Portland with a cactus flower Bloomday, after all it’s something special when you’ve got cactus blooming in your garden…

Above and below Opuntia humifusa. These are still blooming away but I snapped all these photos last week, that’s the cheating part.

These next few are also Opuntia blooms but I’ve lost track of on what plants specifically but I think they’re both some version of O. santa-rita…

Finally the one I’m most excited about, an Echinocereus that we brought back from my mother-in-laws neighborhood in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

We dug it in the fall, after record New Mexico rains. It was one water-logged little cactus. Since I knew that would be the kiss-of-death over winter I chose not to plant it out but to pot it up and store it in the basement. I planted it out first thing this spring and was surprised to see a bloom start to form.

What color would it be? I was wishing for scarlet but got a pinky/purple.

Ah well, it’s still beautiful…

And surprisingly lasted for days.

To see what's blooming in other bloggers gardens visit our Bloomday host Carol, at May Dreams Gardens!

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.