Attitude Adjustment Time – Not Weeds – Wildflowers!

Plant

By Margy on August 27, 2020 • ( 18 Comments )

In Arizona, we live in a community that encourages low water use desert plantings. This means gravel yards instead of grass. Landscaping is done with cactus, succulents and plants that don’t use much water. Residents are also expected to keep weeds under control.

This past spring, the vacant house and lot next door to us quickly become overgrown with a carpet of weeds. Most of these weeds had tiny flowers, so the overall effect was greenly messy. As the Arizona sun got high and hot, the weeds started to die, and the yard started to look brownly messy.

I was less than impressed with living next door to a weed seed factory… but my attitude changed when I photographed the plants with my macro lens! Suddenly they were wild flowers!

Crypthantha (If you hover over each photo, you can read the caption. Click on the photo to see the full size version.)

The Cryptantha is a tiny flower.

Topaz Studio filter applied.

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.
– Doug Larson –

Common Fiddleneck

Another tiny flower is this Common Fiddleneck.

Topaz Studio filter applied.

Crabgrass can grow on bowling balls in airless rooms, and there is no known way to kill it that does not involve nuclear weapons.
– Dave Barry –

Erodium

Erodium – also small.

Topaz Studio Filter – Chevy

Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.
– Author Unknown –

Another small member of the Erodium family.

Topaz Studio HDR Filter

One person’s weed is another person’s wildflower.
– Susan Wittig Albert –

Phacelia

One small member of the Phacelia family.

Topaz Studio Impasto Filter

So many weeds, so little Thyme.
– Author Unknown –

Phacelia

Topaz Studio Filter

California Poppy – there was only one of these plants in the weed patch, but the bright yellow flowers really stood out!

The California Poppy

Topaz Studio Filter

It’s a wildflower if you want it and a weed if you don’t.
– Author Unknown –

Lupin – these are quite common roadside flowers in the spring, but they were few and far between in the weed patch.

The Lupin

Topaz Studio Cathereral Filter

Same Flowers, Other Filters

Phacelia with a Soft Filter

Phacelia with a Sketch Filter

Erodium with a Cartoon Filter

Erodium with a Cartoon Filter

Cryptantha with an Expression Filter

Common Fiddleneck with a Pasterl Filter

California Poppy with a Remix Filter

Lupin with a Ricci Filter

How is your ‘Garden of Weedin’ doing this summer?

Categories: Plant

Tagged as: place Arizona, plant wild