01/07/26

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog, the first one of the new year!  I want to start off the year with one of my favorites.  This is Nipple Cactus, named for the small bud like parts of the main cactus.  It normally blooms in May and June.  It likes dry rocky soil so I hope mine survives again this winter as I need to move it.  Where I have it planted has become a depressed area for some reason and several plants have grown taller and block much of the sunlight.  I love the flowers it gets.

07/16/25

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  Today's flower is a Prickly Pear Cactus bloom.  I actually photographed this in Colorado in the Garden of the Gods but we have them in Kansas as well.  The official name is Plains Prickly Pear and they bloom in May and June and they are found throughout Kansas.  They endure drought well due to their pads, they can shrink and swell depending on how much moisture they receive.

8/2/23

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  My Nipple Cactus made it through another winter OK and bloomed again this year.  It flowers in May and June.  It produces red berries after flowering.

3/31/21

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  Today's image is another of one of my favorites but rarely seen for me because I can never seem to get the timing right.  These are Nipple Cactus blooms.  Nipple Cactus are fairly small, only about 2 to 3 inches across at most.

2/17/21

 It's Wildflower Wednesday!  We have had quite the cold snap and today was supposed to be a warmer one, a balmy 20 degrees.  I am writing this on Sunday so we shall see.  Anyway, I needed a warm photo and this older image of some Nipple Cactus flowers did the trick.  These are found out on Konza Prairie.  I have only timed it right twice.  Hope to see them flower again sometime.  The flowers are fairly small, the cactus are only about 2 inches diameter at most.

1/27/21

 It's another Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog.  Usually in the winter I would run out of wildflower photos but I got a lot of new ones last summer and today's I found in the archives.  This is one of my favorites but I rarely get to see it.  This is a macro view of a Nipple Cactus bloom.  They are out on Konza Prairie and most years I miss the bloom but this was one time I was able to see and photograph it.  

6/8/20

I have the plant that is like a Christmas Cactus but it blooms in late spring early summer and the flowers are quite different.  It very rarely blooms but I got a bunch on this bit that I had started in another pot.  I had to kind if shoot this from below towards the ceiling and I liked how it turned out.

5/14/19

The Cactus in the office at work bloomed again.  For the first time ever it had 3 blooms at once.  I was given a tip by a friend to pour some orange soda over it earlier in the year.  It supposedly makes them bloom better.  Not sure if that is what did it but this is the most blooms at one time that it ever had.  This image is a 3 image focus stack to bring out all the detail.

2/21/18

I felt like something sunny today on this cold day.  This is a 4 image focus stack of the Barrel Cactus that is in the office at work in bloom this past September.  I just love the blooms of this cactus.  so big and trumpet like.  

1/12/18

We are in quite the cold snap again.  In the house though, my Christmas Cactus is blooming and providing some color.  The proper name for these is Schlumbergera.  I loved this bloom as it was rather perfect and frilly looking.  The flowers on this plant as compared to another I have are more delicate looking.  I took this image last night.

12/5/16

Starting off today with a couple of renovation tips.  Don't ever do Popcorn ceiling removal by yourself, it is a mess!  Bonus tip, don't do major renovations at the Holiday Season.  They are busy enough.  Sigh.  My image today is of a lovely Barrel Cactus bloom that was a vibrant red.  Red is a very hard color to photograph and get detail, about as bad a s white.  I think I did OK here though.  :-)

5/18/15

The Barrel Cactus at the office flowers once a year and did so a few weeks ago now.  I like the look of the blooms from all angles, they are rather unique.  I got this side shot of the 2 blooms we had this year that were like to trumpets announcing their arrival.  I did a B&W version over on my G+ stream that I personally like better but people in general don't seem to like B&W as much any more.  You can check it out at the link in the About Me on the right of the Blog if you are interested.