Wednesday

Spring in the Garden

The front garden at the Painted Pony Resort is one of the first things guests see when they arrive so it is an important visual component in the presentation of the estate.  The goal is that when arriving guests round the corner of the driveway and catch their first close up view of the main estate buildings they ask themselves "what is this doing out here?".  A nice presentation is the first reward for those driving into the bubble and as a consequence a good deal of time is spent working in garden to insure it is visually pleasing and inviting.  Currently, the Ocotillo are in bloom and with their large red clusters of flowers they are particularly enticing.  Commonly used as living fences in the desert, Ocotillo are visually unique succulents. The local hummingbirds also find the flowers enticing and they can be seen gathering nectar from the individual flowers.  Note, that the Yucca are also starting to bloom (in the background in the first photograph below) and should soon be filling the garden with large white flowers which should attract the yucca moths.

spring in the desert garden
A 10 -12' high specimen of Ocotillo

desert gardening
Ocotillo flowers

Another grouping of bright red Ocotillo flowers

2 comments:

  1. Your pictures are beautiful! the garden is sure showing off it's beauty!

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  2. Thank you, I'm out working in the garden this morning. I continue to plant other perennials to create more diversity in the garden and continue to encourage the volunteer yucca plants that have sprouted. I'm also planting low flowering plants at the base of the yuccas to create a tiered effect with plants at different levels.

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