Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless because I don't know what most of these plants are. I photographed these last weekend in the country, and haven't tried to put a name to them yet.
Update: With a lot of help from my friends, I can now identify several of these. I need to check the leaves on some of these to nail down the species.
Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria)
Ragwort (Senecio sp.) and Erigeron
Galium tinctorium?
Venus's Looking-glass (Triodanis perfoliata)
Deptford Pink again (Dianthus armeria)
And the ones I know - a much shorter list.
Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium sp.)
Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens)
Labels: CeVA, wildflowers
13 Comments:
The second from the bottom looks like mountain laurel - Kalmia latifolia (if I recall correctly). They're in the woods all around my parents place outside of Charlottesville. Some of the others look familiar, but I can't place a name.
Whenever I look at your posts, it reminds me of home!
Oops, I should have identified the ones I knew. The bottom three pictures (starting at the bottom) are : Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens), Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia), and Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium sp.). Apparently there are several species of blue-eyed grass; I'm not sure which one I have or if I have more than one.
Thanks, Pam, for confirming the Mountain Laurel. I've been looking at these shrubs ever since we got the property last fall, hoping they were Mountain Laurels. I wanted to see them in bloom to be certain. We have only two - one of them has pinkish white flowers and the other has brilliant white flowers. I hope I can get some more of these growing - I killed two of them at our northern Virginia house and then quit trying.
Well, you're one up on me - I didn't know the last photo was Partridgeberry.
I have not had much luck with Kalmias too. I killed one, four others are just hanging on, blooming but barely growing and one on it's last legs especially when my wife pulled it up thinking it was dead. I should call that one the Methuselah Kalmia because it almost died when I cluelessly planted it in full sun. Then when it was almost dead, I dug it up and planted it in semi-shade and amazingly it lived if you can call as state of suspension, living. Now my wife pulls it up. I immediately stuck it back in and gave it a good watering and the leaves have not shriveled so I guess living all this time in a plant coma turned out to be a good strategy.
I'll take a stab at some of the first group. The white one looks like some kind of ox-eye daisy and the yellow some kind of Coreopsis? The pink one is probably some kind of pink, Dianthus armeria? No clue on the others.
Entangled, I just caught up with your blog. Thanks for your comment on my post.
I don't think I know any of these flowers.
Re the herb blog, yes, the curry leaf tree can grow here, and I hope to get one sometime. I have used the leaves a few times in curry. I do know someone with a tree, a friend's husband, but you know the funny thing-he's been so unlucky-including kidney transplant in his thirties, then failure, then fell out with his boss and that was the end of his job, marriage on the rocks etc.-you know I feel I might transfer some bad luck if I take a plant from him! I wonder if anyone else feels positive and negative vibes from people transfer to their plants?
Im guessing Venus Looking-Glass
(Triodanus) on that blue one
and plain old ragwort for the goldn
daisies
and plain old ragwort
for the goldn daisies
All: You guys are champs! I was briefly reunited with my wildflower books this afternoon, and I think we've got just about all of them now. Later this evening, I'm going to go back and update the post with the new IDs. More later.....
Ki: I think I killed my previous Kalmias with drought. I had them in the wooded area in back of the house - plenty of shade (maybe too much) - but very dry in the summertime, even with watering.
Spouses in the garden - what to say? Mine claims he wants to learn all about gardening when he retires. We'll see.
Thanks for IDing the Dianthus.
Nicole: That's an interesting thought about plant karma, if I may call it that. I've read of gardeners who won't go into their gardens when they're in a bad mood (the gardener's mood, that is) because they think the plants will react to the negativity.
That's so sad, all the bad things that happened to your friend's husband.
Marci: Thanks for Venus' Looking Glass. I did a bit of reading about it to find the origin of the common name - apparently something to do with shiny seeds.
Anon: I'm still trying to figure out which ragwort species, but thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
The fifth one from the bottom may be Dyers woad, Isatis tinctoria. See site:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/
sawtooth/botany/weeds/dyerswoad.htm
Saw it in a wildflower book.
Ki: Thanks for the tip. If I can find the darn thing again, I'll see if matches up. Last weekend, I looked for it and didn't find it, so either it was: 1) eaten by critters, or 2) finished blooming, or 3) not where I thought it was. Reading up on dyers woad, I kind of hope that isn't it. I found spotted knapweed in the same field last summer. My noxious weed garden.
I have an excellent source for wildflower ID: "Ask Mr. Smartyplants", http://wildflower.utexas.edu/expert/
From the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower website. I've asked them stuff in the past-they're GREAT!
Lisa: thanks for that link - it sounds like just what I need.
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