Orange blossoms (Neroli)
We stayed at the beautiful Royal Palms Resort & Spa in Phoenix during our recent trip to Arizona. When we got there, I was surprised to see how beautiful the hotel ground is. They do a fantastic job with the landscaping, as soon as I walked through the main entrance I was greeted by this amazing floral scent. It turned out we arrived at a time when the citrus trees were blooming and the smell of orange blossoms just filled the air everywhere. The hotel was built on a citrus grove back in the 1920s and now the citrus trees fills the resort with grounds. The scent of the Neroli citrus tree remained in my memory and when I got back to New York I decided looked it up.
The orange blossoms fragrant comes from neroli, the fragrant bitter orange blossom which produces one of the most cherished and expensive oils in the botanical kingdom. It grows mainly in Morocco, Tunisia, Spain and various other areas of southern Europe. Neroli oil is very precious and one of the more expensive fragrant oils.
Citrus trees
This smells wonderful too but I couldn't tell what it is. Any ideas?
Other random pictures around the hotel grounds:
Citrus tree peeking out from a window:
Century Plant (Agave americana)
Gardeners from the west coast are used to seeing the Century plant, I've heard of this interesting plant but never seen it in real life. In my recent trip to Arizona, I saw many of them in bloom and it's one of the most interesting plant I've seen. Here are some interesting facts about this plant.
Century plant only blooms once in its lifetime, which is about 30 years. When it blooms, the stalk grows 5-6 inches a day. You can literally stand in front of the plant and watch it grow! Its flower stalk can reach 40 feet up in the air. The century plant uses all its energy to produce this once-in-its-lifetime bloom, and after it finishes blooming it dies. Another interesting fact about this plant is it provides native Americans a source of food, soap, fiber, medicine and weapons.
Close-up of the flowers:
Here's a century plant in Sedona, AZ:
Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden
Just came back from a fabulous trip to Arizona visiting Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Sedona. I read many good reviews about the Desert Botanical Garden and was looking forward to it. It totally exceeded my expectation because it's not the normal botanical garden I'm used to in East Coast. It was eye opening and I learnt a lot of things about succulents.
The daytime temperature was in the nineties but I didn't think it was unbearable probably because it's desert heat, it's different from NY summers. I'll be posting pictures here on my blog and in my flickr in the next few weeks. So stay tune!
Look at all the cactus for sale!
Beautiful Chihuly glass display in the background.
