Holiday Greenhouse

Poinsettias, so characteristic of Christmas, stand in ordered rows in the Tohono Chul greenhouse this month. Their crowns of bright red dominate the benches that are home to cactus plants and succulents, all typical of the desert.

Just behind the poinsettia parade are the Christmas cactii.  Red, pink, peach, white. The colors are commanding and it is hard for someone like me, who loves these harbingers of the holiday, to walk away without buying a single plant.

Out in the courtyard there are scads of pepper plants. Edible and tiny, these little gems finally remind me that I'm in the desert Southwest and it is almost Christmas.