When it comes to blooming cactus plants, May is a favorite time of year. It’s when the Claret Cups come to life with their scarlet red flower blooms! Although not just limited to red, the salmon colored ones are gorgeous too!
The barrel cactus flowers are pure magic and I never tire of photographing them! I’ve not had to worry about these plants being sabotaged like I did at the Xeric Gardens in Colorado. That barrel cactus carnage broke my heart! Although admittedly I have seem some plants which have had sections hacked off even in Santa Fe. No bueño!
Claret Cups, barrel cactus or hedgehog cactus – call them what you will, I remain grateful for the small window these vibrant beauties bloom!
After doing some updated recon, this year I was a bit better positioned to capture more photos of them in more locations around Santa Fe.
There are limits though as some of the plants I discovered are growing in people’s front yards. One has to be careful not to be trespassing.
Wisdom reminded me to appreciate those blooming plants from afar.
The Cactus Flower Bloom Begins in Early May
The Cactus Presentation Garden has become a gold mine for photographing these cactus plants. Some get an early start and had already finished blooming by early May. Perhaps our far too mild winter stimulated some of them earlier this year? But for the most part, my timing was quite good. Plants were covered with nubby red buds. Yay!
This year, armed with a new iPhone 17 I even began taking some video. The short video below gives and overview of the Cactus Presentation Garden in early May.
To say sitting among these plants to photograph their emerging flowers puts me in my happy place is an understatement. It’s pure joy – spines and all! Thankfully, I’ve become better at navigating those pointy buggers!
Some of the Claret Cup plants at the gardens are quite large and rather prolific in their flowering. as in the photo above. Others are smaller, but were still covered in nubby buds. While I may have been early for these flowers, I knew on the next trip to the gardens they’d be in full bloom. Truth be told, some of the plants had already flowered. So note to self, I need to get to these gardens at the VERY beginning of May! Timing s EVERYTHING with these flowers!
Orange Barrel Cactus Flowers Bloom Before Red
The salmon colored variety – which I missed capturing last year, were primo! These plants are smaller and have more close-knit spines so a bit tricky if getting too close. But they are real lookers and turned out to be some of my fav photos!
One observation is, these more orange colored barrel cactus flowers tend to bloom before the red ones. Not sure why that is? But they do get a head start. I noticed this same trait in the plants I’d photograph at the gardens in Colorado before they were ALL STOLEN – *sigh*.
Given my propensity to favor the color orange, it’s no wonder I gravitate to these particular flowers. However, in my wanderings in finding barrel cactus out in the wild so to speak, I’ve yet to come across this orange variety. I suspect in areas or Arizona or perhaps Utah, you’d come across them? And for the record, there are also pink barrel cactus flowers at the gardens. Don’t want anyone to feel left out
Out Along the Hiking Trails…
Beyond the gardens, earlier in the season I had scouted several of the barrel cactus plants along the trails I frequent. Truthfully speaking, there were not as many as I recall seeing when I lived here before. That was kind of a bummer.
The other thing is you have to know where to look because some of these plants can be rather stealth hiding under a pine tree or some old fallen tree branches. A couple of the plants I was late to the party – but made a mental note for where they are located for next year.
This little fella I found next to a dead tree branch. It was small but perfect. Its scarlet flowers reaching for the morning sun!
With its long white spines, the flowers almost look larger than the green body of the plant.
Bees and Barrel Cactus Flowers
Oddly enough, in all the photos I’ve taken of these flowers – specifically the red Claret Cups, I’ve rarely seen bees on them. This is another question that remains unanswered to date. BUT, this time around, I did capture a busy little bee on one of the magneta pink flowers. That was a first and my timing could not have been more perfect!
Till Next Year…
As the bloom of these glorious plants came to an end around late May early June, I was forever grateful Mother Nature had offered up multiple opportunities to capture images of some of my absolute favorite flowers! Now it was time for the Prickly Pears! 🙂