Saturday, December 5, 2015

Almost Wild

Opuntia ficus-indica, burbanks spineless, cactus, prickly pear, photography, amy myers, desert garden, small sunny garden
Not quite tame anyway...

Months ago I discovered a volunteer mesquite coming up in the back yard.

Now, while the garden area is meant to be well-tended and civilized, we have 2.5 acres of more or less raw desert.  It had been cleared prior to our purchase, but of course plenty of weeds have shown up since.  Given the very rural nature of the neighborhood, my plan is to encourage a wilder - but designed - look through the rest of the property, so I was elated at the arrival of a mesquite tree in a good spot.  Recently I gave it a first pruning to encourage more of a tree-form.  Like many other desert trees, it would just as soon grow as a tangled shrub, but mesquites (in this case Prosopis velutina) can also make striking specimen trees when well grown.  I like the possibilities in this multi-trunked form.
mesquite, prosopis velutina, young tree, desert
Even more recently we bought a spineless Opuntia: the classic O. ficus-indica.  This one was labelled as Burbank's Spineless; since Luther Burbank worked for years with spineless cactus varieties and produced quite a few, I am not sure which this one is!  But it seemed a nice addition, having few thorns and no glochids, the very fine prickles that transfer to skin with the slightest provocation.  As the mesquite has more than enough prickles of its own, I thought an unarmed cactus might be a good choice in its vicinity!
Opuntia ficus-indica, burbanks spineless, cactus, prickly pear, photography, amy myers, desert garden, small sunny garden
Nothing is very large yet...  The Western Kingbird aka Fuzzy is included for scale!
western kingbird, desert, sonora desert
The pink coloured weeds at the back are a still unidentified wild plant that I have been encouraging because of the beautifully dainty flowers.
desert wildflower, small sunny garden, desert garden, amy myers
Anyway, the little vignette has a good deal of growing to do: both plants should eventually grow large.  But right now they are just a young twosome in the middle of a big, nearly bare yard!
Opuntia ficus-indica, burbanks spineless, cactus, prickly pear, photography, amy myers, desert garden, small sunny garden

6 comments:

  1. The "weeds" are beautiful! I may have to invest in a spineless Opuntia too - they have a marvelous shape but I steer clear of anything with glochids too. A friend gave me a pad of the beautiful violet-colored Opuntia santa rita a few months ago but the darn thing "bit" me even before I tried to plant it so it went into the green waste bin.

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    1. As you know, I've been slow to bring home anything with too much prickle or poke! Those O. santa rita are just gorgeous though... sigh! It remains to be seen whether the spineless Opuntia is part of my limit formula or just the first step towards things with glochids... ;-)

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  2. Love the opuntia, the mesquite and the kingbird! (Kris would laugh at my opuntia obsession -- this afternoon I was wearing several layers of gloves, potting some pads from the Mexican Hat Cactus Nursery...)

    Could that lovely wild plant be Erigonium deflexum?

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    1. Eriogonum. Eriogonum. Eriogonum [writes on blackboard 100 times]

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    2. Whoopee, Luisa! Absolutely Eriogonum deflexum (lucky you wrote it out for me or my fingers would have tangled on the keyboard!)! Several pairs of gloves? Obviously I will need to learn more before I try planting any cacti with glochids - how do you remove them from the outermost pair...?

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  3. Lovely post Amy! How wonderful to have a mesquite just show up in your yard like that and in the right place too! I was admiring the pink wild flower on IG...It really is so pretty and airy.

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