The Organ Pipe Cactus Bloomed This Morning

We'd been keeping an eye on all the fuzzy bumps. In wetter years we've had 3 or 4 flowers at the same time. This year, I think we're going to get them one at a time. They'll close up in a few minutes, and each will open about 3 or 4 days before withering.

Click almost any photo at VVV and you can see a full sized image.

And I thought mine was big

My Organ Pipe and Old Man cactii, that is. We found these over in Paradise Palms in one of the three often ignored cul-de-sacs that run south off of Desert Inn. They're called Yuma, Aztec, and Ayita Circles. The corner houses have gone commercial, since they side up to Desert Inn, and the end houses back onto the golf courses.

One of the reasons they're ignored is that they have a little more street noise than anything else in Paradise Palms which tends to be very quiet due to to the overwide streets and big trees, large lots and the golf course.

In fact, on Yuma Circle, where I found the extremely tall cactii, I also found 2 homes (I think) with so much greenery that it's hard to believe there's a house hiding behind them. The view is much better on the back side since they have golf course frontage.

The reason I got to Yuma Circle today was to look at a classic "Palmer and Kessel" folded roof mid-mod that came on the market. Carol McLeod from Horizon properties has given me permission to tell about it, and tomorrow it will be one of our featured properties. I needed to see it because somewhere in someone's "uninformed" past, the carport was closed in with concrete block to create a fortress prison look to the once impressive Mid-Mod. I had to see if it could be restored to it's former glory. And the good news is....THAT IT CAN! The bones and angles and fireplace and kitchen are well preserved, the views and view deck are great, and all that really needs to be done is to get the carport back to the way it was meant to be. Interior photos will be up tomorrow in the featured homes.

All that and I was only on one cul-de-sac! Who says there's nothing to talk about in Vintage Vegas? Not me!

All the Fuzzy things

on my organ pipe cactus are going to be flowers. This might be the largest number of flowers ever. The flowers will be about 6 inch long "trumpets"

It had grown to be about 7 foot tall at it's max, but we lost the 3 tallest pipes in the windstorm around easter.

The wrinkley "old man" cactus has been with us for about 10 years, and we have'nt lost any of it to the wind or old age yet. Both were bought for about $1. each and were just little bitty things when I planted them.

There's lots of large cactus that can be used in our landscapes. Easy to get, easy to plant, easy to take care of, and easy to reproduce so you can give away starters to other people.

cactus? or mulberry? or YARD ART!

This "little" gem of artwork isn't a cactus. It's a chainsaw art piece on Park Paseo at 8th Place. It came with the house and hasn't changed for the 10 years since Uncle Jack helped the current owners to buy the property. There's another one but it's currently obscurred by a tree that's infringing on it's space. A neighbor told us the original owners of the house carved it from a mulbery stump in the late 70's. Go take a look.