morning glories, monkeyflowers, dudleyas

A long time ago, when I lived in Sacramento and worked in the gardens at the Vedanta Society there, Swami hated morning glories.

"Take out those morning glories," he'd say when I was weeding.

I felt like they were sweet.  So cute and cheerful.  With their pale round flowers and fine vines.

But I could see his point.  They would act like parasites, twining their vines on the outside of other plants, pushing their flowers up to a prime place for pollinators.  They used the height of other plants as their own height.

To Swami, they were a common weed.  So I would rip them out, as instructed, untangling them from the wanted plants they were twining on.

Driving the foothills near the Undisclosed Location, I saw monkeyflowers.  I think monkeyflowers are the only flowers that annoy me.  Not sure why--their stickiness, their name, the way they have a face?  The way they cling to hillsides?  Their peachy color, like Swami's robes?

They never did anything bad to me, so I'm not sure why I dislike them so.  Not like I'd harm them.  They just bother me.

Oleanders, on the other hand, I kind of hate.  I used to daydream about ripping them out.  We actually have some growing by Freedom House by the gravel driveway.  Those oleanders bloom white.

Recently they had a big bloom and then a lot of blooms fell at the same time when it rained, so there was a white flower carpet.  Even I had to admit, it was kind of pretty.

Ming thought I didn't like cliche flowers.  I said no, I love daisies--very cute.  Roses are great.  I love almost all the flowers.  Carnations look very formal to me, the opposite of wildflowers.  But my mom likes them.  They're ok.

In the foothills I also saw tons of sage blooming pale purple.  Whole hillsides were covered in it.  I wanted to pull over and look closer at them.  Poor Ming.  I think when he was driving, he missed them all.

Also I saw dudleyas, my very favorite plants.  There were some huge ones, I think brittonii.  Dudleyas are the only plants I know the latin of.   That's because there aren't really common names.  Maybe it was pulverulenta.

They were growing on steep rocky hillsides.  I would get excited when I saw them.  But Ming couldn't see them because he was busy driving.

This pic is by Helmy oved I snagged from wikipedia.