The cacti are in bloom

On a walk around our community, we saw a number of cacti either blooming or about to bloom:

A saguaro next to the Administration office, so pretty against the blue sky...

... zooming in, you can see the blooms about to appear at the ends of several of the arms.

From what we have read, a saguaro will be 50-75 years old before it puts out its first arm -- though it seems to be constrained by the size of the plant rather than age. Availability of water or precipitation seems to have a large impact. (https://www.nps.gov/sagu/learn/nature/saguaro.htm)

As we walked from Administration back towards our unit, we saw some bright colored flowers that we initially thought were fake, they were so brilliant...

orange...

... and pink...

... so pretty!

More shots of these two plants:

Then we went around the corner and saw...

.... this one -- not quite as brilliant, but with more buds to open.

Our friend, Laura, tells me that the blooms only open one day and then that bloom is done. She also said that they are usually most widely open noon-2pm (we were out a little before noon).

Sights to see around the community!