A weed by any other name...

I meant to post a pic of our "wildflowers" a couple of weeks back, and never did it, so here goes. Boy, you're in for a treat...So, I really love wildflowers. Way more than rows of imported tulips or whatever, though those definitely have their place and are very pretty as well.

In Texas in the springtime there are wildflowers everywhere! Along the highways and in fields, bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes and all sorts of flowers are blooming! Parents take their kids to the nearest scenic highway for family pictures. They pull over and plunk the little ones and a dog or two in a swirl of bluebonnets and shoot away. It's really rather gorgeous, and I'm always a bit sad now that I seldom get back to TX during wildflower season (Feb-April-ish). So this past winter I bought a big old jug of wildflower seeds tailored for Virginia. I really wanted to just sprinkle them in front of our house and have an ungroomed front "garden" with colorful wildflowers growing...wildly...

The appointed planting time comes. Zac and I follow the instructions to the T. Sprinkle seeds, soak area, twirl 3 times under a full moon...All spring I keep them damp and watch hopefully for little sprouts. Finally! Little green shoots are appearing! The little green shoots grow taller, but no flowers yet. Our neighbor -- really into gardening and the whole manicured look -- comments on them. "Looks like you need to weed," she says. "Oh, those are our wildflowers, they'll bloom soon!" I tell her. "They look like weeds," she says. I smile, "But they're not. They're wildflowers."

(Same neighbor made a snide comment about all the dandelions growing in our backyard a couple of summers back. I replied that I liked dandelions. Then, as dandelions do, they lost their nice yellow heads and turned into their fun blowy fluffy selves. I still maintained that I liked them. About 2 weeks later, when the dandelions decided to actually take over our yard and attempt to swallow our cats the moment they laid a paw outside, I attacked them with a dandelion-specific uprooter. Just call me fickle. I still like dandelions, but in other people's yards.)

Anyway, our Virginia wildflowers were growing! All summer we waited and waited for actual flowers to appear. Not happening. I notice that all the little "Virginia Wildflower Meadow" designated patches near our house are in full bloom. But not our patch. "They're just slow, or maybe they're different flowers," we reassure each other.

Despite the dearth of colorful blossoms, they're growing awfully quickly. September comes. Still no actual flowers. Come to think of it, they do resemble weeds. I don't have the heart to kill them. Weeds or no, I grew these babies!

We return from the Outer Banks September 9th. It's dark, but I see our weeds with fresh eyes. They are taking over the front of our house. I think of Jack and the Beanstalk. It's very late, we're tired, but I tell Zac it's over. I have quashed my feelings for these plants. We must cut them immediately. The next day's Sunday, and we don't do gardening, etc. and there was no way they could loom over our house until Monday.

This is them on their last day. Taller than Zac. The denser green areas are legitimate bushes, our wildflowers are just the tall, gangly, weedy-looking things. How did I keep fooling myself into believing these monstrosities were still going to flower? They were very sneaky weeds, knowing I had convinced myself they were wildflowers.

Here is a pic of them trying to infiltrate our home through the front door.

Next spring it's marigolds. Or more veggies. We just buy them and put them in. No surprises.