Cactus Flowers

I've been waiting for awhile, checking every day to see when my cactus was going to bloom.  The buds have been around for quite sometime, and I had figured they would bloom before now.  Last Wednesday morning, I looked and still no progress.  When I came home around noon, nothing.  But around 3PM there were two full blooms.  It's amazing how they pop out so quick.   I shot them ten ways to Sunday for two days, as they were in various stages of bloom and retreat.  They close up at night and only last for two or three days.  I have one more bud that hasn't popped yet, but for the small amount of cactus I have, I'm happy I got as many as I did.  Seven total.

The second day, when the group of four bloomed, there came a bee.  I disconnected from my tripod and started chasing him around.  It was a very busy critter and wouldn't even think of holding still for me.  Good thing there was plenty of sun.  I was able to shoot these shots hand held at ISO 200.  I'm always happiest at ISO 200.  Anyway, I chased it around for quite awhile, as it would go deep into the flower to collect the pollen and that didn't make for a very attractive shot.  But I was able to get a couple that turned out pretty well, however, there was some debate as to which way the image should be oriented.  I'll present it as shot and you can look on my flowers page to see the other orientations and let me know what you think.

So this green bee was a newbie for me.  I've probably seen one before but never actually photographed one before.  Metallic Green Bees are not exactly common in my yard but this guy seemed extremely appreciative of my cactus flower pollen.  He took all he could carry and came back for more.  Get more info on green bees below.

Genus Agapostemon - Metallic Green Bees

I think I'll be doing some division of the cactus this fall to spread it around more and get a bigger patch.  More flowers is good.

All of my flower shots from this spring are located here.

Thanks for visiting.