Another Bloom Watch Comes To A Close
July 20, 2016Thank all of you who attended Bloom Night and sent me pictures of your bloomers. Hopefully all of you had a good time. This has been delayed due to the late forming flowers and the final bloom. The last flower bloomed last week, which gave us a total of 72 for the year.
It was a different year to say the least. There was The Queen, that wanted to be famous and bloomed for Elena Acoba’s article in The Arizona Daily Star in May. Then, Bloom Night came in June. And finally, the week following the Bloom Night The Queen decided to make more flowers. Most of them on plants that had not bloomed previously, but five were on plants that had already bloomed. This is the first time I saw a plant that already bloomed and then produced a new round of flowers. Pretty cool actually.
The downside of this year is the lack of fruits. The pollination rate was 46%, which is outstanding, however the pack rats and javelina ate all but three fruits. So as you can tell I am still battling the hordes. Hope you all have a good summer and I will be looking forward to seeing all of you next spring.
Until Next Year – Lee Mason, Director of General Services, Tohono Chul
*Photo courtesy of Larry Parkhurst.