Gardening on the Moon ( GOTM )

Written by Jeff

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© Jeff Ross and www.gardeningonthemoon.com, 2000-2075. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts of 50 words or less and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jeff Ross and www.gardeningonthemoon.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

To keep our garden inspiration flowing, I will post pictures of flowers, trees and other plants that I have found pretty and/or interesting for one reason or another. Many of the pictures will be of drought-tolerant or xeriscape plants because I live and grow in the Sonoran Desert.

I hope these photographs stimulate your creativity and keep you enthusiastic about the wonderful world of horticulture. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment below.

While hiking in Joshua Tree National Park earlier this spring, we saw this “pretty in pink” opuntia in bloom. Another picture of the plant is below.

Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post

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Garden Snapshot Template

Written by Jeff

Follow Jeff on Twitter for daily garden tips and news!

© Jeff Ross and www.gardeningonthemoon.com, 2000-2075. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts of 50 words or less and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jeff Ross and www.gardeningonthemoon.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

To keep our garden inspiration flowing, I will post pictures of flowers, trees and other plants that I have found pretty and/or interesting for one reason or another. Many of the pictures will be of drought-tolerant or xeriscape plants because I live and grow in the Sonoran Desert.

I hope these photographs stimulate your creativity and keep you enthusiastic about the wonderful world of horticulture. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment below.

While visiting the Maricopa County Extension Center’s demonstration garden about ten days ago, I was anxious to see how their Queen’s Wreath vine was doing since our Queen’s Wreath was showing very little growth at this point.

I was glad to see that their very large specimen was in about the same state. This is especially promising since the Extension Center is usually a couple of week’s ahead of us because they are “in the city” and a bit further south. I left hopeful that our Queen’s Wreath would survive our somewhat cold winter months.

While I was at the garden, I saw this striking calendula that reminds me of a straw flower.

This is another nearby specimen!

Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post

Written by Jeff

Follow Jeff on Twitter for daily garden tips and news!

© Jeff Ross and www.gardeningonthemoon.com, 2000-2075. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts of 50 words or less and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jeff Ross and www.gardeningonthemoon.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

To keep our garden inspiration flowing, I will post pictures of flowers, trees and other plants that I have found pretty and/or interesting for one reason or another. Many of the pictures will be of drought-tolerant or xeriscape plants because I live and grow in the Sonoran Desert.

I hope these photographs stimulate your creativity and keep you enthusiastic about the wonderful world of horticulture. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment below.

This is the first year we tried trailing pansies. In general, pansies do very well in the Sonoran Desert during our winter season. We generally don’t have many very cold or freezing days, but this year we have had our share, especially on the north side of the house where these plants live. They have done well and provide a burst of color when blooms and thriving plants are at a minimum!

Above is a second photo of the same grouping of the trailing pansies. While they haven’t trailed much yet, they have been stalwarts in a colder than usual Sonoran Desert winter!

Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post

Visit Amazon’s Garden & Patio Markdowns

Written by Jeff

Follow Jeff on Twitter for daily garden tips and news!

© Jeff Ross and www.gardeningonthemoon.com, 2000-2075. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts of 50 words or less and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jeff Ross and www.gardeningonthemoon.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

To keep our garden inspiration flowing, I will post pictures of flowers, trees and other plants that I have found pretty and/or interesting for one reason or another. Many of the pictures will be of drought-tolerant or xeriscape plants because I live and grow in the Sonoran Desert.

I hope these photographs stimulate your creativity and keep you enthusiastic about the wonderful world of horticulture. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment below.

We have been having some relatively cold days for our area, but despite evening temps in the low-to-mid 30′s some of the plants are still producing flowers and thriving even if they have slowed down a bit.

While walking around the house, I noticed that our Bottle Bush ‘Little John’ looked as though it was designed for the holidays. I have included several pictures below. I think it has a pine tree-like look and the green and red really are in tune with the winter holiday season!

Bottle Brush ‘Little John’ looking fit for the holiday season.

Notice the bee in the bottom-right corner of the picture above. This time of the year, bees don’t have a lot of choice, but they really do seem to relish the ‘Little John’ flowers.

While I was watering the courtyard plants I had a visitor. Can you see it in the bottom-right of the picture on the tip of the agave “leaf?”

If you can’t discern the critter, here it is perched on top of a structure that supports the Queen’s Wreath which is dying back for the winter.

The picture above was the best shot of the hummingbird I was able to manage while taking care of the courtyard plants. When the sun hits the dark neck band, it is a luminescent purple. You can get a hint of it in these pictures, but I was not able to snap a “full flush” of the color which is stunning!

Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post

Visit Amazon’s Garden & Patio Markdowns

Garden Snapshot Template

Written by Jeff

Follow Jeff on Twitter for daily garden tips and news!

© Jeff Ross and www.gardeningonthemoon.com, 2000-2075. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts of 50 words or less and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jeff Ross and www.gardeningonthemoon.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

To keep our garden inspiration flowing, I will post pictures of flowers, trees and other plants that I have found pretty and/or interesting for one reason or another. Many of the pictures will be of drought-tolerant or xeriscape plants because I live and grow in the Sonoran Desert.

I hope these photographs stimulate your creativity and keep you enthusiastic about the wonderful world of horticulture. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment below.

For this “picture post,” I thought we would try something a bit different. My wife and I recently spent a week hiking in and around Moab, Utah. This is a wonderful scenic area with an overabundance of beautiful vistas that, at times, are breathtaking.

Of course in and among these vistas are numbers of wildflowers. I took pictures of several while we were taking an early morning hike along the Negro Bill Trail on the north side of Moab. I have not been able to successfully identify these three plants although I have some ideas. I thought perhaps that some of my readers might be able to shed light on the identifications.

I know from my past experience in identifying wildflowers that without stems, leaves, etc. and all the specifications, it is very hard to identify a plant because there are so many lookalikes. I thought I would give this a shot though so here we go. Leave any guesses in a comment and thank you!

This picture was taken along the trail which seemed quite moist. It might have been along the bank of the stream that flows through the Negro Bill Canyon.

This was a somewhat tall wildflower that I am guessing was at least four feet tall. There were a number of these large flowers along the trail.

This grass was very pretty appearing in the shadow of the canyon and standing out as a white punctuation against the shadows.

Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post

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