1. Sweet Potato Very easy to restart since it can be done from clippings. It roots fairly quickly and looks great in hanging baskets. Fairly drought hardy does not require lots of maintenance and can tale the full Arizona sun. For decoration purposes it comes in green and purple a vivid purple.
2. Honeysuckle We start out with a small iron trellis (the wooden one’s fall apart in the Arizona sun) and watch the Honeysuckle grow up and around it. Blooms, Flowers are very fragrant with smell resembling a sweet honey smell. The bonus is that it attracts hummingbirds’ which makes for good company in the morning.
3. Mexican Lavender A very drought hardy plant and loves the full Arizona sun. Very fragrant as the smell is very unique in itself. Dried out it makes for a very scent full presence in any room of the house. Very easy to grow, just so long as the pot is proportion to the plant because it grows fast . One of my personal favorites.
4. Petunias first benefit is they can be grown year-round, the second is they come in virtually every color so they can be potted with many other types of plants. Fairly low-maintenance the water cycle is once a week in the winter and every other day in the summer. Or like every other plant mentioned they can also be put on a self-maintenance a drip system.
5. Snap Dragons not only a unique name but also a unique plant. The color patterns are very intimate sometimes with several colors combining, clashing within a single flower. One of the few outdoor flowers mentioned that can be used as a cut flower.
One of the unique qualities of Arizona is it’s sun. on average we get more than 9 months of sunny days right here in Tucson. This makes it hard on our plant life. Outside of Cactus very few other things survive. The above mentioned potted plants have lived and thrived in the desert of Tucson for long as I can remember. Just keep in mind just because they sell a plant here doesn’t it will survive here, so read the disclaimers.
Landscapes…one of out most undervalued assets here in Tucson
Almost each evening I get a chance to sit out and watch the sunset over the mountains. Each day on my way to and from my daily business I see something, something out of place something that catches my eye in particular. Usually it is something that doesn’t belong in the desert. Today it is the colors that have my undivided attention the vivid colors of the landscape. It is thought that the desert is beige. Beige as in barren, dry wasteland beige. Yet in reality the most complex array of colors exist right here. I am truly amazed when I photograph the desert landscape and realize the high Yellows of the flowers and the thousands of shades of green Cacti that jump out at me. Only when I set up my shot do I realize just how deep of a Grey the mountains provided as a backdrop to the Beigeness of the land. The sky in itself is the Royal Blue, not in color but in mass as it surrounds everything in the Blueness of sky. The clouds add a majestic topping, the perfect White.
Back to the sunset…as I watch the sun come to rest I notice the purplish hue that it creates. A Magenta is gradually settled into a darker and darker purple as the sun sets further behind our mountains until all is black, it is nighttime here in Tucson. My new objective now is to see the sunrise the next day. I awake early enough to capture the darkness just before it evaporates. I purposely preoccupy myself until I see that first crack of sunlight burst from behind the mountains. The Blue is different from most I see here in the daytime. This Blue is few shades darker in the morning to me. I can see so much potential in it. A new day has come from the ashes of an old one, another chance.
Back to the landscapes…I take my pictures purely for self-motivation. They give me as a writer something to correspond my thoughts with. I have taken manly types of pictures but I find the completeness of landscapes to suit my needs the best. I find landscapes to be non-restrictive since you don’t need a theme or a title. They can be interpreted however necessary. Here in Tucson you can turn in any direction on any given day and find a beautiful landscape. The perfect picture that captures the hustle and bustle of our downtown goings on can make for a split-second of time frozen forever where as the mountains that surround an underlying valley can seem to go on forever.
As I mentioned before the Desert holds a surprising array of colors within it’s landscape. The flowers and plants of the desert serve a purpose here just as they do anywhere else. Our desert holds a vast array of wild life that live and feed off of what we see as just a landscape. If have the luxury of being able to watch the sunrise as well as set then consider yourself fortunate in that sense, you are free.
Back to the sunset…as I watch the sun come to rest I notice the purplish hue that it creates. A Magenta is gradually settled into a darker and darker purple as the sun sets further behind our mountains until all is black, it is nighttime here in Tucson. My new objective now is to see the sunrise the next day. I awake early enough to capture the darkness just before it evaporates. I purposely preoccupy myself until I see that first crack of sunlight burst from behind the mountains. The Blue is different from most I see here in the daytime. This Blue is few shades darker in the morning to me. I can see so much potential in it. A new day has come from the ashes of an old one, another chance.
Back to the landscapes…I take my pictures purely for self-motivation. They give me as a writer something to correspond my thoughts with. I have taken manly types of pictures but I find the completeness of landscapes to suit my needs the best. I find landscapes to be non-restrictive since you don’t need a theme or a title. They can be interpreted however necessary. Here in Tucson you can turn in any direction on any given day and find a beautiful landscape. The perfect picture that captures the hustle and bustle of our downtown goings on can make for a split-second of time frozen forever where as the mountains that surround an underlying valley can seem to go on forever.
As I mentioned before the Desert holds a surprising array of colors within it’s landscape. The flowers and plants of the desert serve a purpose here just as they do anywhere else. Our desert holds a vast array of wild life that live and feed off of what we see as just a landscape. If have the luxury of being able to watch the sunrise as well as set then consider yourself fortunate in that sense, you are free.
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