Is This Really the Name of a Bank?

Not a very good name for a bank would you say?  Could they have picked one much worse?

Looks like they got a couple syllables reversed short of asking people to rob them...

Tallest Century Plant?

And not far from the others was this VERY tall Century Plant. Never seen one this tall, either. Have you?

In fact, it was SO tall I couldn't get it all in the picture. Note, normally you see just the bottom part of the century plant, which  looks like a big agave, but sometimes you'll see a tree-like think grow out of it. This one was a monster. Shades of Little Shop of Horrors

Like the cactus flowers below, we're told that century  plants rarely blossom. Looks like this one IS to some extent, anyway...

Purple Trees in Vallejo

On the same bike ride I saw the flowering cacti, I came across this purple tree. Perhaps someone can tell me the name of it but I found it to be just beautiful. Never saw another like it.

Large Cactus Flowers a Rare Site Indeed

I've had this cactus for almost 10 years now and it's never bloomed or at least I've never seen it bloom. You see, when cactus' do bloom, which isn't often, the bloom only lasts for a short time, maybe an hour or two or a day if you're lucky. This lasted maybe a couple hours, so I'm glad I got the picture. There are a couple more buds so maybe I'll get to see some more blossoms if it doesn't happen in the middle of the night.

There are small cacti whose small flowers last awhile as well as some prickly pair and other cacti with small er buds but for these big sagura type cacti it's a special treat to see them blossom at all!

Coincidentally, I was taking a bike ride a few weeks back and I came upon maybe the first big flowering cactus I have ever seen, this one in Vallejo, CA. Again the homeowners said to enjoy it because it wouldn't be around long. I even pulled off the road I was so surprised.