Nature (and Landscaping) Notes
May. 18th, 2005 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienSpring is getting to the far end, here; we're promised three-digit temperatures before the end of the week. There's still plenty to see, at least for a little while longer.
How long do mourning dove eggs take to hatch, anyway? There's one nesting in the crook of a saguaro on campus that I photographed on the 11th of March, and it's still there.
I've never seen so many flowers on the saguaros; not just the usual one or two rows around the top of each column and branch, but buds spilling a couple of feet down the sides. They started early, too. Everyone sagely credits the winter rains.
The hibiscus just keep getting better. I liked them when they were putting out a flower or two at a time, but now every little bush seems to have a dozen or so open at once.
In the raised bed behind them the bird-of-paradise bushes are getting into the swing of things.
The southern magnolias are in bloom too, with white flowers the size of small teapots. I touched one; the waxy stiffness of the petals brought back memories of my grandmother's plastic tulips.
The landscapers put in some new bedding plants by our building entrance the other day. I'm fascinated by the tiny flowerlets in the middle -- it's like a textbook illustration of the meaning of 'compositae'.
How long do mourning dove eggs take to hatch, anyway? There's one nesting in the crook of a saguaro on campus that I photographed on the 11th of March, and it's still there.
I've never seen so many flowers on the saguaros; not just the usual one or two rows around the top of each column and branch, but buds spilling a couple of feet down the sides. They started early, too. Everyone sagely credits the winter rains.
The hibiscus just keep getting better. I liked them when they were putting out a flower or two at a time, but now every little bush seems to have a dozen or so open at once.
In the raised bed behind them the bird-of-paradise bushes are getting into the swing of things.
The southern magnolias are in bloom too, with white flowers the size of small teapots. I touched one; the waxy stiffness of the petals brought back memories of my grandmother's plastic tulips.
The landscapers put in some new bedding plants by our building entrance the other day. I'm fascinated by the tiny flowerlets in the middle -- it's like a textbook illustration of the meaning of 'compositae'.