A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Three mysteries at new house

OK -things are coming up all over! The first one is some kind of ground cover that spreads by underground runners. It's growing in the shade.





This one was SO pretty when it was first coming up. The leaves were very purple - now they are green but the flowers are purple. Huge batch of them, again in the shade. They are about a foot tall now.




This last one grows in clumps, and is all over the yard, mostly in sunny areas. As you can see they are little bulbs. I have some muscari, but they are already in bloom. These are about 7 or 8 inches tall.





Thanks for any help!

The first one is Goutweed. Very invasive, be careful with that stuff!
The second is forget-me-nots, one of my favorites!
The third could be a few things. Star of Bethleham first comes to mind for me.

Thanks much, Netty. I think I'll yank out the goutweed, then. I've "Googled" it and I think it needs to go, especially since it has a potential for skin irritation. I have plenty of other shade lovers in my holding beds and this will be a great place for them. Love the Forget-me-nots - there is just a ton of it. It's even pretty when it first pushes through the ground. If the "grass" ever blooms I'll post a picture of the flower.

I think the second one is Virginia blue bells.

Hmmm - I've looked at both Forget-me-nots and Virginia blue bells on line now, and it's not either. I'll try to get a picture that's clearer of the flower itself - my digital camera does not like to do close ups. The flowers are kind of papery, and they bow their faces downward.

OK - Virginia Blue Bells they are. Still don't know about the "grass"/bulb thing - hopefully they will someday bloom!!

I believe that the third one (with the bulbs) is wild onions. I keep having them grow in my gravel drive by my garage.

If the third is wild onions t will smell like onion when you crush the leaves or bulbs. There was a flower that had foliage that I thought was onion but no smell. It had really pretty flowers later in the spring. Still dont know what it was, but I did mow around it until it was done blooming.

OK - I'll try a crunching them! Netty - can't tell you the HOURS I spent pulling up gout weed! Fortunately, the soil is wonderfully full of organic matter and soft. We ended up digging up all the stuff we wanted to keep and about 200 good sized rocks to get to it all. The gout weed roots had entangled themselves all through the roots of the cinnamon fern. VERY tenacious stuff!

The only thing that kills goutweed is thick plastic..
And then it sends runners to the outside of the plastic..
And grab'em early, when they're little..

I have that stuff, and it's my personal nemisis..
(and the sad thing is, it wasn't here, my s~i~l liked it, *she owned the home before us* and she found it, and planted it EVERYYYYYWHERE :p

Can we have a direct picture of a flower on the second one???

Sandy...Taraven once told me that if I could get ahold of Virginia Bluebell seeds, she'd love to have some. She hasn't posted here for several months, but I have her snail mail address. If you get a chance to save some seed, I know she'd appreciate it!

Sandy-I've spent countless hours pulling goutweed too!! NASTY stuff! I have a patch I've been trying to get rid of for 5 years!

Roundup for the goutweed...?

the third could be all kinds of things - do the leaves smell like onions or garlic when you crush them?

Argh! Blast the blasted goutweed! I did Roundup the remainder around the perimeter of the beds we completely gutted and replanted but I'm sure we didn't pull out every tiny piece of root. Sigh!

Dave I'll try to save some Bluebells seeds.

Aren't they sweet?

The "grass" doesn't have any onion smell - just smells "green."