The Yellow Season

It starts out slowly.

The Mexican Bird of Paradis decided to join the party for the first time (in 15 years).

She's still a little shy, taking it slowly, too.

The yucca have no problem announcing their presence,

nor do the mature agave.

This was the most mature pup I transplanted during last winter's rains.

The smaller ones have yet to settle in enough to bloom.

I've highlighted them for your ease of viewing.

Even the transplant is sending off pups (the arrow at the bottom of the plant).  I will have plenty to share; all you have to do is ask.

This is the original mama plant.

She's showing off with two flowering stems.  

Then there are the Engleman's prickly pear paddle cacti,

whose flowers start out like this

and end up like this.

That's a golden barrel cactus on the left.

When it all comes together, it's really quite marvelous.

I admit that I'm hiding from current events. I'm much happier thinking about the flora than about the Supreme Court. I'm trying to ignore the fact that a former President of the United States is on trial for rape, nor am I allowing my brain to wonder whether Trump or Bill Clinton or John Kennedy was the worst sexual predator to occupy the Oval Office.... and then there's the whole Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson situation.

 

That's a rabbit hole with no obvious exit.

There will be more pictures of flowers tomorrow.  It's that or ponder the fact that Joe Biden is old.