Tucson's full of blooms!

March and April are my favorite months in Tucson. Temperatures are usually warm during the day and cool at night, and a lot of beautiful plants are lighting up the desert landscape with colorful blooms. It's amazing that so many gorgeous plants are drought tolerant, or require very little water to thrive.

Since I'm camera happy I snapped a few pictures of blooming plants in my yard and neighborhood for every ones viewing pleasure.

This year Tucson saw a lot of great wild flowers. Our December rains always bring a colorful Spring! Though most of the poppies are starting to fade away, there are a few other varieties just making an appearance.

These are called Parry's Penstemons, and they grow wild. You can find seeds at Home Depot or Lowes. Just beware...they grow like crazy. Once the flowers dry then the seeds spread everywhere. These are great if you let them grow wild in a confined area.

I'm not sure what type of wildflower these orange blooms are; I haven't been able to identify them yet. If anybody knows please fill me in!

These bright yellow beauties are called Brittlebush and you can see them everywhere. Generally a silvery grey leafy green bush, they bloom yellow flowers from March through June. These plants really need no water; most live wild and survive off the summer monsoon rains we see each year.

This plant, a Dalea, is one of my favorites. These bushes grow up to 6 feet tall and add great privacy and color to a our yard. Most of the year the plant has small silvery grey leaves but in the Spring it has light purple blooms that attracts lots of bees.

The Green Feathery Cassia is another evergreen plant that blooms beautiful yellow flowers in the spring and early summer. It really needs no water so it's a nice addition to any yard. The plant with red blooms is a are found on the Salvia, which blooms most of the year. You can find Salvia plants with red, pink or purple blooms at any garden store. Hummingbirds love Salvias because of their long blooming season.

Who says cactus have to be ugly? There are several varieties of cacti that produce really beautiful blooms at various times during the year. The one problem with these beauties is that the blooms attract Javalina, who munch on the buds for their nighttime snack.