Lamium amplexicaule (click image for detail)
A closer look at the previous weed posting.
Lamium amplexicaule part II
Author Archives: RobertKamper
Lamium amplexicaule
I rarely use an actual “weed” as a photo subject, since one of my slogans is “May all your weeds be wildflowers” and I don’t want to encourage the “wrong sort” of flowers. But it is raining and I have an excuse for not doing any hand weeding, so I took a picture of what is commonly known as Henbit. It’s a member of the mint family and is rather more attractive than St. Augustine or Bermuda grass, but that won’t help it escape being considered a noxious weed among the turf grasses. Oh well…
Lamium amplexicaule - Henbit (Click for detail)
late bloomer
Although most of the Turks Cap have lost their greenery, this twig next to the house seems to find it still warm enough to be sending out the solitary bud, which is slowly but surely opening. Will try to track its progress from bud to bloom.
Malvaviscus Arboreus - Turks Cap (click for detail)
Salvia greggii – Autumn Sage greets the new year
Salvia greggii - Autumn Sage (click for detail)
Recent rains and mild temperatures have coaxed the Autumn sage into winter blooms in apparent profusion, posing here for a group photo.
Deadhead
Here’s a Liatris (Gayfeather) after the bloom is gone. This is in the front yard – sometime this Winter it will get cut back to the ground so it can come back in the Spring, but for now it provides an austere reminder of the seasonal changes.
Liatris mucronata - Gayfeather (Click for detail)
fruit of the silverleaf nightshade
Silverleaf Nightshade fruit (click for detail)
These little fruits are still hanging in there. Took a walk in the greenbelt behind the house and didn’t find much – nothing in bloom. These fruits are toxic, by the way. But they are more photogenic than deer scat.
Salvia regla – Mountain Sage
Salvia regla - Mountain Sage (click for larger image)
These long tubular flowers attract hummingbirds. Normally they bloom from July through October, but this was photographed here in December. It’s been an extreme year weather-wise, and a number of native plants are blooming out of season now that we’ve gotten over four inches of rain in December.
Salvia greggii winter blossom
Here’s a bloom from Autumn Sage taken the first day of Winter.
Salvia greggii - Autumn Sage (click for larger image)
Winter bud
I went out this morning and observed several buds as well as open flowers on the Autumn Sage. Although this plant has a long bloom period, it is listed as being from March through November. No freezing temperatures are predicted within the next week, so it is probably safe to say that this year’s bloom period will be extended through December.
Salvia greggii - Autumn Sage bud (click for larger image)
Viguiera stenoloba – Skeletonleaf Goldeneye
Amazed to find the odd bloom at this late date in the year. Not much else is blooming. This, the Fall Asters, and the Rosemary…
Viguiera stenoloba - Skeletonleaf Goldeneye (click for larger image)
bob's brain: living well with a movement disorder and other comorbidities 