Flower Sunday

I wandered around our yard yesterday. The olives trees are in bloom and causing more allergic reactions around the valley this month, ours are no exception. We trimmed our two large trees out front back in February, they were getting just a little too tall and we were afraid that our high winds would break more large branches. One of the results of the trimming has been a real overabundance of flowers, which will probably be reflected in the olive crop. I went out to spray off the blossoms, which usually reduces the number of olives set, but I’ll probably still have to spray to reduce the fruit set. We don’t eat the olives, and the big purple blotches left behind are rather annoying.

While out I took some shots of what is blooming right now. It seems that yellow is a favorite desert color. Out back the California poppies are still putting out some golden blooms. The larger plants are about eighteen inches high now, most have started to put out seed pods, which indicates the end of the flowers.


Also putting out seed pods are the feathery cassias. There are still some yellow blossoms present though not as many as a few weeks ago, when we couldn’t see the green for all the flowers.


Another type of cassia is in full bloom. This bush is about a meter high (40”) and a little larger across.


We have a lot of smaller plants, didn’t keep the name tags but just pick up things at the desert nursery that catch our eye.




Out next to the tomato plants in our raised beds the pansies I put in a few months ago are doing very well, putting out lots of blooms before the heat hits and knocks them down for the summer.


As I stated, the olive trees are in full bloom. Most of the buds are not open yet, but I was surprised at what a sweet fragrance these trees do produce. Not really yellow, but blooming.


Oh, I guess it’s in the yellow flower theme, but I just wanted to show off what is going on out back. This is the earliest, probably due to the fact we put them in so early and the Spring has been rather mild, but we are starting to get tomatoes out there. This one is over an inch in diameter already. We should have a nice crop before the heat hits.


And one of the cherry tomatoes is starting up also - this is a yellow variety, starting to turn from green already.


Yesterday it was nice and warm and sunny, topped out at about 83f (28c) but scheduled for 91f (33c) tomorrow. We went to the first outdoor jazz concerts put on at the county center, Spiro Gyra, which attracted quite a crowd – probably had around 6,000 people out there, many more than usual. I missed the Def Leopard concert over at the MGM last night, last week we had Van Halen with David Lee Roth, so we are getting the big old rockers in town. Cher will be on Oprah this week (filmed in front of Caesar’s on Friday) to push the opening of her show. Tina Turner was on and announced that she will be starting another final tour sometime this year. And for those of you unable to make it to Branson; Donnie and Marie will start a six month engagement here on the Strip. Something for everybody.