Spring Comes Softly to the Desert

With the arrival of the triple digits of summer in Arizona, we could say that we had lived in the desert through four seasons.
I have so enjoyed watching each season unfold. Of course, there are not the dramatic differences that were seen throughout a lifetime of Michigan seasons; however, there are obvious differences to be noticed. I think I have to say that spring has been my favorite seasonal experience during our first year of living in the low desert.
One of my favorite, and very early, spring flowers in Michigan was the Forsythia blossoms that beautified the south side of our garage. Our last spring there I felt the pangs of lonesomeness as I knew I would see these in the desert. Imagine my delight to find that the Palo Verde blossom is a suitable substitute for my beloved Forsythia! And not just six foot tall shrubs, but trees that are fifteen to twenty feet tall and just as wide lending a golden glow to their desert surroundings. Pictured above is a swath of Palo Verde trees lining a street in Queen Creek. This sight could be seen repeatedly while driving through the communities of the Valley.
Cactus flowers were one of the spring sights I looked forward to most. I started very early in the spring (perhaps even late winter) watching for subtle signs that the blossoms would be appearing soon. Alas, it was later than I had envisioned before the first flowers appeared. But when they did, they were so worth the wait!
The Prickly Pear cactus picture above was taken at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum on one of our many visits. The flowers in the picture are a bit hard to see, and there are more buds than actual flowers, but it gives you an idea of what a display would look like as the blooms progressed. The Prickly Pear is one of my personal favorites, and the variety of different species produced just as many varied flowers in the spring display.
Here is a Hedgehog cactus with its beautiful pink blossoms. This is a rather insignificant cactus, but there are many along the trails of San Tan Mountain Regional Park here we walk (I call it hiking) at least twice a week. In fact there is one trail aptly named for the many varieties of Hedgehog cactus that line it, so I plan to spend more time exploring that particular trail next spring.
The Saguaro is what I consider the sentinel of the Sonoran Desert. No where else in the world will you find this cactus. I had seen a couple of blossoms on an April trip a few years earlier, but looked forward to seeing multiple blossoms on multiple cactus as we walked in its habitat. Imagine my surprise when I discovered only a few open at a time on each cactus. So while a Saguaro may have 50 - 100 buds, only a couple open at a time. I was fortunate to be able to capture a Curve-billed Thrasher surveying its territory from the top of a cactus with many buds but only a few flowers actually in bloom (note some on the far right side of the cactus that are difficult to see).
One day in May I came upon this barrel cactus with a perfect circle of blossoms and buds. It was the first time I saw this in the desert and couldn't resist yet another cactus flower picture to join the hundreds of others that were already taken.
One of my favorite very early spring plants in my Michigan garden were my Helleboers (Christmas & Lenten Rose). Often they would be blooming under the protective cover of the snow, waiting for the first warm day of spring. How excited I was to find that many of the Cholla flowers mimic the flowers I left behind in my spring garden in Michigan:-) Seeing these always brought a smile to my face!
The Ocotillo plant, which is native to the Sonoran Desert, is one of the most intriguing plants of our area. Most of the year it is just a bunch of "sticks" reaching for the sky. But when the winter rains and warm soil prompt growth, tiny green leaves cover the branches of this plant. These can seemingly appear overnight.
And when they bloom, this is what one sees. The panicles remind me a bit of the Sumack berry panicles in my yard in Michigan. And wow do the hummingbirds love these!! Many times we were buzzed as we walked the trails at San Tan Mountain park where the Ocotillo were blooming.
One of the spring events we looked forward to most in Michigan was the annual butterfly display at Frederic Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. Every week would find Tom and I volunteering in the display, sometimes together but other times separately. We loved greeting the visitors as they came to the butterfly display in the conservatory. So we were a bit sad when April 30th of 2010 passed, and we knew it was our last year volunteering for the butterfly event there. Well, imagine our surprise to find that in the same time frame, the Desert Botanic Gardens had a butterfly display!
We picked up our niece, Mandi, and her daughter, Anna, and headed to the Desert Botanic Garden. Anna had been there the week before on a school field trip, so we knew a little of what to expect. What a beautiful exhibit! We were fortunate to be there while a new butterfly population was being released. As you can see, these are released in the adult stage, not the chrysalis stage. The envelopes contain several butterflies each that have been brought out of "cold storage". We all were able to release several envelopes of butterflies, which was definitely the highlight of our day!
Here is one of the butterfly feeding stations, which several hungry butterflies having lunch. How beautiful they are even with their wings closed. God's creation is a gift that I never cease to marvel over.
One butterfly decided to check out the Morning Glory blossoms on my blouse. I'm sure it was disappointed, but took a flight break for a couple of minutes anyway -- at least long enough for us to get a good picture of its rest stop.
And then at the end, we saw the pretties butterfly of them all. She was with us the whole time making our experience at the butterfly exhibit extra special:-)
I am hoping this will entice my northern friends into paying us a visit this year. You can come while it is snowy and cold in the north land; however, to experience all that spring in the low desert of Arizona has to offer, you will need to be patient a little while and come in April and May. See you then!!