The snow is mostly off the ground and i’ve been out putting around today between rains. I’m happy to see the rhubarb popping out of the ground and lots of what should be daffodils popping up. But since we bought this place in August i’m not sure of what plants are in the garden.
So gardening dopers I turn to you, please help me figure out what’s coming up in my garden.
Looks almost like ginger or ginseng roots, they are halfway out of the ground something i’ve never seen before. There are light green shoots coming out and they are flat and spikey. I’ll post a pic once I can get them loaded onto a sharing site.
Small purple shoots coming out of the ground smooth small leaf, again will post a pic ASAP.
What exactly does young stinging nettle look like? I want to start pulling it out now before it gets stingy!
The first thing you describe sounds to me like daylilies. The foliage is spikey in shape, but soft?
I was trying to find a photo for you and came across this kinda cool site, which has photos of emerging perennials. Daylilies are under “H” for hemerocallis, but the photo doesn’t show the roots. You might be able to tell by the foliage in the photo alone, though.
If you look through the rest of the photos, you might find other things you can identify.
Pretty much like the adult plant, only fresher-looking green and generally more compact. the leaves might have a sort of pleated look to them, but they’ll be recognisably similar to adult stinging nettles. The bad news though, is that there is no stage at which they’re not stingy - invest in some tough rubber gloves.
Fighting ignorance all the time… I thought the Iris only grew from bulbs, that’s the only kind I have ever planted. Now I know that they also grow from rhizomes! Iris it is! I also had no clue the some rhizomes likes to grow slightly above ground.
I should have been more clear, I know for sure that the first isn’t daylilies, there was nothing in that spot in August when all the other daylilies in the garden were in full bloom. I’m now 99% sure that it’s iris.
That site is really neat, I was able to identify what I think is verbena. Now I’m down to only 1 mystery plant out there. But I think it might be Phlox. There was a lot of phlox in that area last year. Does anyone know if some Phlox is purple when it’s young?
There are two kinds of phlox - one is a low-growing, early spring groundcover, the other is a tall, summer-blooming thing. There are several plants, though, that have purplish stems or purple-veined leaves, which could be what you are seeing.
What a wonderful site, feck!
I also would love to play along if you were to post pix.
My first thought from the OP was geraniums - possibly one of the scented varieties. I’m always a mite surprised at how obvious the rhizzomes are when the foliage is down. But I think the new growth tends to be purplish…
After 10+ years in this house, I’m pretty certain of what is growing (or what could migrate) where (as well as the most common uninvited guests). This is oneof my favorite times of the year, when I can stroll around the gardens, and see which of my friends have popped up yet.
I know it isn’t one particular color, but my favorite “color” is the various shades of green on the new shoots emerging in the spring. There is something about them that is so fresh and bright and full of promise.
(Damn, I’m a geek!)
Duh. I dunno why I didn’t think of irises. His description of ginger-root like things was dead on. The iris borers have destroyed all mine --SOB!-- so I have forgotten what they look like!
My guesses:
Mystery #1 asters.
Mystery #2 bugleweed (ajuga?).
And yeah, those are irises, and that’s a cute pup!
My wife just e-mailed me to tell me our old arthritic hound is lying in the back yard in the sun on the greening grass, happily chewing a tennis ball.
