More April Blooms, A Field Trip and A May Day Update

After a five day onslaught of 100+ temps, it finally cooled down to a balmy 97 today, but relief is in sight, with a return to normal temps in the mid-80's to low 90's coming by the weekend.  During the heatwave, I was limited to the early morning hours if I wanted to work in the garden, and most of those hours were spent dealing with other family matters, so the gardenening got put off.  But gardens continue going about their business, with or without you as long as they get watered, at least in the short term, so here are some pictures of April blooms in my gardens.

Asian lilies blooming for the third straight year.

More Asian lilies; these are from the 99 Cents Only Store.

A volunteer sunflower.

This Climbing Pink Peace sure looks white.

On the 26th, I chaperoned a field trip my granddaughter Kathryn's class took to Pioneer Living History Village, an assemblage of buildings from throughout Arizona that date from the 1880's through statehood in 1912.  While there were numerous interesting buildings, I also took photos of some of the plants and wildlife.

A warning best heeded in Arizona's deserts.

They had a garden guarded by an entire family of scarecrows; here's Dad.

Here's Mom.

And here's Junior.  Think Larry might be related?

A shot of the garden.

An antique seeding implement.

Unidentified wildflower; it was everywhere.

Creosote, Larrea tridentata, flowers and seed pods.

A towering saguaro, Carnegiea gigantea.

Mesquite flowers; the natives ground the seeds into flour.  This is most likely Prosopis glandulosa. 

Buckhorn cholla flower.

Buckhorn cholla, Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa

Prickly Pear Cactus, Opuntia engelmannii, in bloom.

Hedgehog Cactus, Echinocereus engelmannii.

Western Whiptail Lizard, Aspidoscelis tigris.

California Patch, Chlosyne californica

Gambel's Quail, Callipepla gambelii, male

Pollinator inside a buckhorn cholla flower.

Lastly, here are some pictures of some of the other things happening at Dove Manor.

Organza bags I bought to cover seed pods to mke it easier to collect seeds.

One of the bags in use on a hollyhock seed pod. 

Last year's volunteer tomato finally set some fruit.

Grapes are getting bigger every day.

The daylily I planted in 2011 is getting ready to bloom for the 1st time.

The first gladiolus bloom stalk making an appearance.

The mason bees are busy doing their job.

The Red Lion amaryllis has two seed pods ripening.

The lemon grass I've been rooting got planted today.