Friday Is It a Weed Blogging

by CKR

This is a game I play every time I work in the garden. As regular readers know, I have a somewhat unconventional view of weeds and wildflowers, so that makes it even more complex.

I have been impressed lately with all the lacy sorts of leaves that are in my yard. And many of them look the same, or almost the same. If the distinction is too difficult, I just let the plant grow for a while. It will reveal its true character at some point.

Meanwhile, that first plant is what I promised last week in coming attractions: a blue penstemon. Like many perennials, they seem to prefer blooming every other year, and this is the other year. The plant in the photo is in a particularly favorable place, and it is one of the first in the yard to bloom, but many others are coming.

So here is today's quiz: weed, wildflower, or cultivated plant (i.e., I paid money for it)? Click on the photos to enlarge them, in case you think that will help. Answers after the jump.

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1. Weed: woollyleaf bursage.

2. Cultivated plant: mounding peppergrass (Lepidum medium)

3. Weed. This one seems to be a mustard.

4. Cultivated plant: Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). For a variety of reasons, my three plants have been transplanted far too many times. I'm hoping I can keep them where they are now. As they were starting to leaf out and send up shoots, the woollyleaf bursage was also sprouting around them. I definitely had to wait a while to see which shoots to eliminate.

5. Woollyleaf bursage and, I think, a native verbena. This is the area in which the verbena was last year, and there are a lot of these triangular-leafed plants coming up. I'm hoping they'll fill the area. One of these days I'll dig the bursage out.

6. This is one of those wildflowers that isn't in the books. Here's a photo of the whole plant. They're in bud all over my yard. Next week I'll give a photo of the flowers.

Finally, this week's coming attraction: claret-cup hedgehog.