by CKR
My later cactuses bloomed this week, the walking-stick cholla and the larger prickly pears. 
I have two chollas in my yard, but only one of them bloomed. I was told that the chollas might be of a special subspecies with orange flowers, but this one is the standard magenta. The other didn't bloom this year and is maybe fifty feet closer to the type location of the orange-bloomers...
The larger and later-blooming prickly pears have yellow flowers with a hint of red at the base of the petals. I have two kinds in my yard, I think. The other one has similar flowers but spines with a brownish coloring. One of these days I'll check them out in the books. I started looking at my guidebooks, and for some of the distinctions you have to count spines and other details that I just don't have time for right now.
My lot is fairly steep, and one of the services that the prickly pears do for me is to help with erosion control. The pads slip down and root in the ground, forming an erosion catchment. You can see it in the right-hand pads in this photo.
I managed to get photos of my latest datura blossom as it opened. Did Georgia O'Keeffe get that right, or what?
I've lived in New Mexico for some time and have greatly admired the native flowers. My last house wasn't well suited to them. I transplanted some cactus, which grew for a while and even bloomed, but they didn't last. Having my very own cholla and datura is very exciting. 
The next big native plant I want is a giant four o'clock. The first time I saw one was when I was hiking in the backcountry of Bandelier National Monument. I walked around a little ridge, and there it was: a mound of green, maybe eight feet across, with magenta trumpet-shaped flowers two or three centimeters across. 
Plants like this have enormous roots that store water and nutrients so that they can emerge at the best time.
One of the native plant nurseries carries giant four o'clocks. I'll check it out when I get back. I don't want to leave it newly transplanted for Jim, my good-natured friend who is watering plants for me while I'm away. 
No Tuesday yard blogging for the next couple of weeks. I've pulled the woollyleaf bursage that replaced the cheatgrass--a much easier task! But I think it's got an underground root system. So as an experiment, I pulled some that were coming up through the asphalt of the driveway and sprayed others with Roundup. The breeze cooperated this morning by not showing up, so that I didn't have to worry about the Roundup spreading to plants I like. Looks like cheatgrass somehow suppresses woollyleaf bursage. The weed crops here are remarkably uniform, but I think I see some variety showing up.