then and now--

Then, December 2008... we'd already had the saguaro for about a year here (not sure when exactly we bought it; I could look it up, but the receipt is upstairs). It was 5 ft tall when we bought it, and Tom is 5 ft 8 inches, so it's already grown maybe close to a foot, here? (This saguaro was "rescued" from the desert by the landscaping company, probably from a construction site-- they do that here: saguaro cactus flowers are the state wildflower, and saguaro cactus in the wild are protected, so permits must be obtained before moving or destroying them. Anyway, when we bought it, it was 5 feet tall, but had some "character" due to having been used for target practice- which is also illegal in AZ- at some point in its past.) Below is the Now pic, taken just this morning... Tom hasn't shrunk any, so that means the saguaro has grown quite a lot... we (okay, he) measured it last weekend with the tape measure, and it was 8 1/2 feet tall. !!!!! We had it moved from our first house to this one, and when the landscaping guys saw it, they asked if we watered it: Nope, not since it was planted and got settled in. Apparently, it just likes us!

...now if it would just bloom... which hopefully will be in another couple feet!! (for a few facts: saguaro are native only to the Sonoran Desert, take up to 75 years to develop a side arm, and their growth rate is dependent on the amount of precipitation they get. They can live as long as 200 years, and can get up to 50 feet tall. ...so ours has a ways to go, yet.)