The desert has more than just cactus

 While I truly love the cactus blooms, there are so many more lovely plants to enjoy.  

I love so many of the agave plants that can be found here.  This one looks fake but I assure you it is real.  I like to add odd stuff in my gardens, hence the oversized jack.

I think this is some kind of sage and it has graced me with purple blooms for weeks now.  It's getting leggy and will be trimmed back before we leave.

This is a variegated Queen Victoria and it's lovely just the way she is.

This agave is a lovely mix of colors and is busy making a little colony.  You go girl!  Oh and look at that fun rusty truck full of lush succulents.  Yeah, those are fake.

I remember when I bought this one the man told me that other cactus will prick you and hurt, but this one will slice off a chunk of your finger. That's when I knew I was in love with the fishhook cactus. You'll notice I often put rocks around the more dangerous ones. That's as much to protect me as the plant.

This was a fountain that belonged to Sylvia across the street. It didn't work anymore but I thought it would make a cool planter.  There's a cactus growing behind it that will get tall and hopefully have lots of arms on it. To the right you'll see firestick in the green planter.  The planter has variegated Elephant Food growing in the basin and I'm attempting to grow some candytuft on the right side. Next year I'll try alyssum instead.

This is the little cactus garden behind the house. There's a bud on the Santa Rita cactus (in the green pot) and I'll try to catch that bloom later.

That's it for today's garden tour of the back yard.