Yeah, I think this plant likes to confuse people!

We seem to get a lot of similar questions about it.
Enlarge Noodle's photo.
Noodle said: 
Near the bottom of the photo, do you see the things that look like tiny, green pine cones at the tips of the growth? Those are the very young, new flower spikes developing. If you look up higher, you'll see slightly larger/more developed versions that are getting purple but still look like little pine cones. As the spikes get nearer to flowering stage, the "purple pine cones" start to unfurl their sterile purple bracts from the tip. The actual flowers are deep purple in this photo. They start blooming from the bottom of the spike and, with time, new flowers will open, ascending row by row, until they reach the tips where the sterile bracts attach. The sterile bracts continue enlarging as the spike of flowers bloom.