2005 Cactus Flowers

All of these cacti bloomed in my own backyard after the exceptionally wet spring of 2005.

On June 4, the stenocereus greeted us with two hand-sized blossoms.

The trichocereus pachanoi displayed nothing but a crown of fuzzy nubbins until one humid night in late August when it burst into a wheel of 10 large white blossoms.

Watch these Easter Lily cacti bloom before your very eyes!. This sequence was filmed by Dennis, with assistance from Caliche, the evening of May 4, 2005, when 48 night-blooming cacti popped their corks simultaneously.

The Cereus Peruvianus Monstrosii produced its first blossom one night -- and only for one night!

This exuberant magenta blossom sprang from a dried-up echinocereus pentalophus stump.

A fabulous single coral bloom produced by a hybrid echinopsis.

Opuntias are under-rated. This cholla grows along Cherry Creek north of Roosevelt Reservoir, and nowhere else have I seen these tomato-red blossoms.

Echinocereus reichenbachii, May 1, 2005.

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My partner Dennis and his sidekick, Caliche, photographing cactus at night.

Ready. Aim. Fire! May 4, 2005, 28 pale pink Easter Lily cactus blossoms ready for launch.

Coral-colored echinopsis at dawn, left, and Easter Lily in full sun, May 4, 2005.

This unusual prickly pear has pads with scalloped edges. I rescued a fallen branch from behind my favorite coffee shop, and this is its first blossom.