Saguaro in Bloom

Saguaro Cactus Blooms

Saguaro Cactus Blossoms © 2013 Bo Mackison

“The poetry of the earth is never dead….”  ~ John Keats

What a joyful experience to walk through the Sonoran Desert when the saguaro are in bloom! After craning my neck to see the very top of each saguaro, I felt as tipsy as the bees that were swarming the flowers  while doing the pollination dance.

I spent much of today packing, and tomorrow I begin my travels to the Midwest. I hear that spring is just about ready to burst in Wisconsin and I am ready to be home.

But still, I will miss my other home in the desert.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.

Blossoms on a Saguaro

Three Blooms on a Saguaro

Three Blooms on a Saguaro © 2012 Bo Mackison

The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth. ~ Chinese Proverb

These are the first blooms on a saguaro cactus I have ever seen. What a thrill!

As I drive and walk through the Saguaro forests in the Sonoran Desert I am on the look out for saguaro blooms. I’ve seen a few cactus with their heads covered with a few buds, and a couple that have a mop of buds like the saguaro in the photograph.  But I have only seen two that actually had a flower in bloom — and this one had three!

These three blossoms will start to shrivel and fade as evening approaches. Other blossoms will bloom in the night and those flowers will last for much of tomorrow. A saguaro flower only lives one day – but what beauty it offers in that single day!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC, living and photographing in southern Arizona until the end of April. She is so happy that the flowering season for cacti — hedgehogs, prickly pear, cholla, and finally saguaro — is showing peeks of color in the desert.