Human and plant moms

 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM!!!

This is my beautiful mother. The top photo is when she visited me in St. Louis to meet her new granddaughter, Julia. That's my son, Keith, with me. It's 1988.

In the photo below she's with my two younger sisters in our backyard in South Park Township, outside of Pittsburgh, probably in the early 1960s.

And here she is last Christmas just a few days shy of turning 90!

I also have some plant mothers in my yard that are sending up seed stalks like crazy!

This huge agave in my front yard sent up a stalk that looks like a giant asparagus almost overnight. It's at least eight feet. 

Now it's growing horizontal branches toward the top that support seed pods and flowers that the birds love. You can see these branches in this photo:

This is what it looked like when the stalk first started growing. Unfortunately, when an agave blooms it means it will die soon. The seeds will fall on the ground around it and produce clones, though, so all will not be lost.

Meanwhile in the back yard, my soap tree yucca sent up three blooms this year! The skeleton-like stalk on the far right is from last year's bloom. Luckily the yuccas don't die after they flower.

The next few photos show the progression of blooms:

These last two show how full last year's stalk got with big creamy white flowers.

It was REALLY big!

I also have smaller yuccas throughout the yard sending up tall slender stalks with seed pods that the birds and bees love. Here are two little birds sitting on one of the branches.

The entire neighborhood is filled with mother plants reproducing. These gorgeous yellow flowers are on a neighbor's prickly pear cactus.

The barrel cactus, below, produces fruit that looks like little pineapples.

And the majestic ocotillo gets red flowers on the tips of its tall branches in the spring.

And finally, my next-door neighbor has an absolutely stunning palo verde tree full of golden blooms! Here's to reproduction and mothering in all of its forms!

Have a colorful day