Leaves IV

Leaves III

Leaves II

Leaves

The Lily of Peace

Blooming!

Crape Myrtle Blossoms II

Crape Myrtle Blossoms

Prickly Pear Skeleton

Extraordinarily beautiful!  

Taming the Spanish Dagger

I have trimmed the eye- and dog-level Spanish Daggers to prevent their razor-sharp points from putting out eyes or piercing the flesh of dogs. One point from the tall yucca fell to the ground and by itself went dagger-first into the earth. 

 

Jerusalem Sage

Damianita

Wicked Weeds

That's their polite name. Mofo weeds is their impolite name. Some of them are, I kid you not, 20 feet tall; these are little baby ones. Their roots grow perpendicular to the plant stem & are at least half as long as the stems. Cutting them down is a temporary & somewhat futile measure, as 10 new shoots will grow out of one stem that's been cut. They're usually too difficult to pull up, so I do chop them, but the ground is so wet right now that I've been able to pull up a lot of the smaller ones lately. I HATE THIS PLANT. It isn't native to the US; it was imported as an ornamental plant by some idiot whom I hope is now rotting in hell. Ha! I didn't realize I had this much to say about them; I must hate them, indeed. 

That is a knee-high boot there. I chopped and/or pulled up dozens of these yesterday, & last weekend, & the weekend before, & last year, & et cetera, ad nauseum; and dozens more await. As god is my witness, I swear that one day our property will be free of them. Free! FREE!!

Trumpet Vine, or is it Cross Vine?

I can never remember which I have.

Old Blush

Holy Cow!

Buffalo cow, that is. Apparently these are the new neighbors down the road!! I fervently hope they're there to live and not there for sport hunting or as a food crop. They are absolutely HUGE. I think one of these is taller at the shoulder than I am tall.

Iris

Sotol

They Grow Where They Will

Daisies!

Five Giant Flower Stalks

Two of the stalks are on the other side of the plant; one is barely visible between the two blooms on the right side, and the other you can't see at all in this photo. But it's there!


Here is Hugh for scale.