Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Critter Farm Garden Report #3: Flowers

This year my flower garden is a complete and total surprise to me. You see, I didn't plant any of it. Having just moved into this house in January, other than a weeding, pruning and cutting back, all I really have to do is sit back and watch.

I am a lifelong flower gardener, lovingly obsessing over perennials in particular. I've always considered flower gardening my personal form of therapy. With all the plants I have bought, it has certainly cost me as much. So, as knowledgeable as I like to think I am about plants, it is a bit distressing to me that there are, literally, dozens of plants, shrubs and trees here that I don't recognize.

Below, a short tour of what's coming into bloom in my garden. I have used their common names only, as my Latin sucks. I've included many that I don't know the names of...please leave me a comment if you have a clue what they are!

Pink Peonies pushing their way through a bloomed-out Candytuft. Gaudy, aren't they? I still think they're lovely:

The Shasta Daisies getting ready to smile at me:

Look at this pretty little flower. She looks hot and needs to be watered:

My shade-loving Astilbe:

The Hostas are extremely large and healthy. BONUS: the deer don't eat them like they did at our old place:

I took this picture because hundreds of bees covered all the beautiful, lightly scented blossoms, but then I realized, I have no idea what this tree is. Can anyone tell from this photo?:

Coral bells:

The day lilies are blooming like crazy:

This is some kind of miniature one:

This is a beautiful bloom on a shrub-type plant that I don't recognize. Does anyone know what it is?:

Strawberries, maybe just the blooming and not the bearing kind. We shall see:

Yarrow. I could never get Yarrow to grow in my old yard. Here it does very well:

Yellow-something that I also don't know the name of. It's beautiful. Somebody, please, tell me its name!:

Liatris. These will have feathery purple spikes when it blooms:

A couple of volunteer sunflowers courtesy of my friendly, bird-seed-hogging chipmunk pal:

Lamb's Ear:

And some big white prongy-looking things. What do you think these are called?:

Here is the biggest question of the day:
What are these? I call them the weird oniony plants that have pretty yellow blooms

The thing is, my husband hates onions. Hates the taste of them, hates the smell of them. The people who lived here before us apparently loved them. They planted these *everywhere* and the entire side yard smelled of onions:

Here are some pictures of white ones that were finished blooming that I've yanked:

The odd thing is, the bulbs were being pushed out of the ground and were laying on top of the dirt (see left side of picture):

Is any part of this plant edible?

Hen & chicks. Appropriate for my garden, wouldn't you say?:

Wild daisies. These are covering our lower pastures...the donkeys don't seem to like eating them:

Wild foxglove. Highly poisonous, but the donks avoid these, too:

They seem to grow over, around and through anything in its path, in this case, a dead blackberry bramble:

Here's one last flower that I don't recognize. Cool shot of a spider catching a bee, too:

I think that's it for my Farm Garden reports for now, at least until the berries begin to ripen!

15 comments:

  1. What fun you must have watching your "secret" garden unveil itself to you! I can help identify one plant for you. The spikey plant with yellow leaves up and down it (between the yarrow and the liatris) is a yellow loosestrife. Better watch it -- it tends to spread like crazy! I love it though, and have plenty of it (somewhat where I want it) in my own garden. Enjoy!

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  2. Hi Danni! Well it's so funny that I know all the ones you know but I think I might be able to help with one or two. Your "prongy-looking things" look like Foxtail lilies to me and the mini lilies look like 'Stella d'Oro' Day lilies. I'll look into the tall yellow flowers...it's on the tip of my tongue! I'm sure someone will know it. You are so lucky to have all these there...what a great surprise. My favorite flower of all is Roxy girl!! What a sweety.

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  3. Oh the yellow one may be a yellow loosestrife. See what others think.

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  4. Hey Danni, Gorgeous flowers! I love the peonies, they are show offs, but if I looked like that, I'd show off, too!

    I can ID 2 of the plants. The yellow flower is garden loostrife, and the white prongy-looking things I think are foxtail lillies, Euremius, which I hear can be challenging to grow (I've been wanting to try them.)

    Ali

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  5. ps, the weird oniony things are alliums. You might be able to ID them at Brent and Becky's Bulbs, http://www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/

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  6. This is some kind of miniature one:
    Stella D'Oro

    I don't remember the name of the yellow something. We have them here too.

    The oniony things are probably in the allium family. That's not very helpful but it might be a starting point.

    I need your help in my perennials. Want to come to Maine?? *grin*

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  7. All of your flowers are gorgeous. I especially love the peonies. I can smell them all the way thru the computer.

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  8. Your photos are beautiful Danni! The one with the donkeys on either side of the foxglove is an interesting shot. I think that your pretty white flower on the shrubby plants must be some kind of rockrose. I have yellow ones growing on the slope by my driveway. Your white ones look similar in form to these pink blossoms.

    I know my veggies better than I know most flowers. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

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  9. Ooh-ooh...I love plant ID! I agree, the yellow one is Loosestrife. I don't think it's as invasive here as in some parts of the country. The white round flower with the pink spots on each petal is Rock rose(Cistus). The white scented ones might be Mock Orange. Google it and see if it looks like it. It was hard to see the flower fully in the photo. I have one and it is VERY fragrant.
    I have some of the oniony plants too and it might be an allium, but mine are not technically an allium and they are pinkish. I for the life of me don't remember the names. They are pungent! The hummingbirds like them though. Your poor husband...does he need nose plugs too? LOL

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  10. Love your pix of flowers! And the pink Peonies peeking out of candytuft! I planted pink Tulips in mine, so when they are done, you don't see their leaves dying. Growing up in the Pac NW...nothing beats the flowers that can grow & thrive there. Not so lucky, here east of the Cascades...I'm envious! Gardening has been my "therapy" too...never thought about putting it into the finacial perspective as you just did...But oh so true!

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  11. I think the white blossom with the 5 pink dots is a mountain laurel? And ditto about the stella d'oro.

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  12. wunderschoen! ihr habt da ja alles!!
    Schoenes Wochenende wuensch ich dir u deiner Familie

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  13. The tree with the bees... it's hard to tell since can't see the leaves, but is it evergreen or semi-evergreen at least? We have a row of cherry laurel I planted across the front of the yard, and the bees love them also. I'm just not sure about the size of the blooms in relation to the leaves to really be able to tell. But maybe you could google up a picture of cherry laurel and see if it looks like your tree.

    Nice pics BTW. :-)

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  14. Danni, I really like the paprika yarrow. I have some at my in-laws I still need to mover over to my place. Somehow I got the white and the pink but not the red. And it's my fav. Can't help you out on the unknown's. Try gardenweb.com

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  15. I think it's just the purple loosestrife that is considered an invasive, noxious weed.

    I agree with the other plant IDs... lovely garden!

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