In the five seasons of our Sonoran Desert, the main times for rain are winter and Monsoon summer. April (end of spring), and the first half of May (beginning of foresummer), were this year and are traditionally very dry. The lupines and poppies on my hillside already dried up and popped out their seeds. A penstemon stalk snapped off when my son dragged the hose over it last night. He started to cry – but I reassured him that the flowering part of the plant was all done for the year. Therefore the adage “Spring showers bring May flowers” is flimsy, even if fun to say.
A few May flowers are shining in my backyard despite the predictable lack of rain showers. Some cool season plants have persisted with help from my hose. Other plants are are just now blooming, activated by heat. All that are pictured here I found while watering at the end of a hot and windy day, and after skipping watering the day before. What is the same, and what is different, compared to my March tour in the same space?
Cool season hold-outs
Wild bluebells in a pot of planted carrots.Arugula blooming at the end of their season, as an eggplant start is just getting going.Green onions continue to bloom, though the rosemary finished.Fleabane daisies are still blooming, this plant benefiting from pavement runoff.This hot day dried up the last globemallow flowers. The plant has already made many seeds.Mexican evening primrose keeps blooming after I think it’s all done. This bunch likes afternoon shade and extra water from the sweet potato pot.
Awakened by warmth
The neighbor’s desert willow is fully leafed out, brilliantly in bloom, and kindly gracing us with its presence.Marigolds! They are the new warm-season blooms, among persistent cool-season snapdragons.This Mexican honeysuckle is a little late to the flower party compared to the same plant out front. But it peeked out after I gave a haircut to the panic grass that froze back and is now greening up again.The orange bells huddled in dormancy during the cool season, under the protection of the blue mist that has since been trimmed back. Now it gets to show off warm season blooms.Tomato time! This plant is a volunteer that toughed out the winter and is now ready to make flowers and fruit again.
