Greening up

Over the last couple of days, plants have really started to put on leaves, buds and blooms. The magic of water. The grass is sending up new growth, much to the delight of our horses, and the mesquites have started to leaf out. This means that our gray and dusty-green landscape will soon be tender-leaf green. It also means that there will be no more frost (so the old-timers say). It is still fascinating to me that the leaves pop out of these insignificant, dead-looking nodules.


In the forest, the banana yuccas are blooming in profusion. Last year we hardly saw one bloom (it was a very dry winter), and now it seems like all plants have a stalk coming up. Also the ocotillo are in "velvet", with leaves all up and down the stems and a couple of them are already sporting blooms. Oh, happy hummingbirds.


Cacti are budded now, and I am amazed at the number of flowerbuds, in addition to the new pads, on the ficus indica in front of the barn. That is going to be some show!


I saw this Bottle Evening Primrose on my walk this morning, and could not pass it up. Such a gorgeous time of year.