Mexican Bird-of-Paradise - Red Variety

On our recent visit to Phoenix, Sedona and Jerome, Arizona, I took very few pictures, but these are certainly the most striking. Theses lovely examples of Mexican Bird-of-Paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) are located in the back yard of our friend, the Webb's.

I was quite taken with these plants, even though I have seen them before in the simliar climate of Palm Springs, California, where my sister lives. The combination of the bright colors, green leaves and palm tree background kept me out in the sun much longer than was wise. It took several glasses of ice water to cool down again, after my excurision into the 105-107 degree heat.

(Click the photo for a small gallery of 3 pictures)

Back here in Los Angeles, we were also facing some higher temperatures, but still managed to get soem small garden taks done. I am approaching the garden one, small section at a time these days. With my busy work schedule, I feel lucky to simply pull the weeds between "rose #1 and rose #2 along the driveway." I usually do more than I originally plan, but my step-by-step method means that wach part of the garden gets, at least, a few minutes of attention every so often.

There are some larger projects on the drawing board, but I am unsure when I will be able to get to them. Having them in my gardening journal, though, keeps them in a place where I can refer when time allows.