Day 117: The Great Plant Identification Project - Update 1

As promised, this post is going to be an update on the plant front. Much of the work we've been doing outside has been an effort to clear out the garden to get it ready for veggies. Not knowing what many of the plants were, we moved a bunch of them into the raised planter bed between the yard and the garden. (Here's the diagram if you need a refresher.) About 1/3 of the garden is cleared and ready to get mixed up with some compost.

I'll start off this update with a bunch of the plants we've been able to identify and end off with a list of ones that are still question marks.

Rhubarb

When we first found little reddish buds coming out of the ground, we guessed it was rhubarb. There was a clump of it clustered against the fence on the south side of the garden so they weren't getting much light or room to grow. Since rhubarb is a perennial, we wanted to give it a proper space to live so we moved it over beside the compost bin. There were 3 main clumps that we spread out and they've been growing marvelously. Here, we present, Most Likely To Be Eaten of All the Plants that Came With the House:

Peonies

When this little purple thing on the left started poking out, we thought it might be another bunch of rhubarb. But then it started looking like the spiky plant on the right and we knew we had it wrong.

It was clearly not weed but also clearly not vegetable. Wanting to keep the main garden space for veggies, we moved it up into the raised bed between the yard and the garden. We accidentally chopped off a giant piece of root. We pulled out 2 feet of root that got transplanted and the root left in the ground was still 2" in diameter... who knows how much deeper that went! Thankfully, the plant survived and is thriving. We learned at this point that the weird spiky purple thing we had just moved is actually peony. It's been neat watching it slowly morph to green and I'm excited to see what colour the flowers are. Peony: Most Surprising Transformation (For Those of Us Who Had No Idea What Peonies Look Like In Early Stages).

Bleeding Heart

The other spiky purple thing had been identified by Gail as bleeding heart before we started moving anything around. Since a couple of plants were found squished between the fence and some pavers in dire need of sunlight, the bleeding heart wins the Best Recovery After Transplant award and currently shares the title of Prettiest Flowers.

While going through the garden, we found a bunch more bleeding heart plants tucked in beside fences that were nowhere near this mature (you could barely tell they're about to flower). Since the plant is quite large and looks nice even without flowers, we moved them to a small flower bed to the right of the front porch that was sitting empty. It doesn't get a ton of sun - a couple of hours in the evening down the laneway - but it'll be a nice filler for that space so we're hoping they'll survive the transplant.

Common Periwinkle (aka Vinca minor)

The shady ground cover we found in the yard was identified by Tiffany as vinca minor, also known as periwinkle. I'm quite taken with the pretty little flowers and the nice clean evergreen leaves. Apparently a lot of people agree because I've been noticing this in use as ground cover in many a yard. But vinca minor is also considered an invasive plant according to a handy dandy book I borrowed from the lovely Ecology Lab at school. We're going to leave the patch that's in the yard for now but are preventing any spread into the raised bed or garden space. Periwinkle: Most Invasive Plant (tied).

Celandine (aka Chelidonium majus)

Here we have the other winner of Most Invasive Plant. These guys are tall (1-2 feet at maturity) and they are were all over the garden. When I found it in the invasive plants book, we decided to start tearing it out since it doesn't win any prizes for appearance, is apparently toxic if eaten, and was truly invading our veggie growing space. The seeds are spread by ants, which may explain why this plant all over the garden - we have a ton of the little guys, as you may have read about here.

Grape Hyacinth (aka Muscari botryoides)

This member of the lily family is quite a nice little wildflower sprinkled around the garden. They're all in flower now and the splashes of purple are a nice sight among the mass of green we're trying to move/clear out to prepare make room for veggies. This is a perennial so I think we'll try to transplant these to the front yard to liven up the flower bed in front of the porch, what with it sharing the title of Prettiest Flowers.

 

Primrose (aka Primula vulgaris)

Gail and Angela saw random green #4 for what it really is: primrose. We had a couple of small plants with a few tiny flowers that we've moved into the raised bed.

Lupins (aka Lupines or Lupinus)

We were right about this guy not being edible. Tiffany and Angela both identified it as lupin. In addition to the plants we moved into to the raised bed that are doing quite well (photo on the left), we also found some in the front flower bed.



Just in case you thought this post couldn't get any longer, those are just the plants we've been able to figure out. There are still many mysteries left... and we're hoping you can help!

Mystery #1

The plant Garrett dubbed "Random green #2" remains a mystery, although we have saved it and transplanted it to the raised bed. Angela thought it might be tansy but there are no signs of flowering yet  and the leaves don't look quite the same. The leaves are quite fragrant, almost citronella-y. There is also a very large bunch of this in a flower bed at the side of the house. See the bottom left photo, which features my tiny-by-comparison foot in the yellow boot.

Mystery #2

This guy has not given us any help in figuring out its identity, despite the fact that there is a ton of it throughout the garden. The plants have started to grow taller (up to ~6 inches) and some have taken on a red-maroon colour on the leaves.

Mystery #3

These little wildflowers came up at the end of the freakish streak of summer weather we had in March. They stayed strong when the temperatures dropped to freezing. (Unlike the money tree we accidentally left outside when the temperature fell below 0° celsius :( The only house plant we had that lasted through two moves and a cat, only to be killed by forgetfulness. It was a sad day.) Using Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, blue eyed grass came up as a candidate but the flowers look totally different. Maybe it's just a different variety?

Mystery #4

We haven't paid much attention to this one since we moved it into the raised bed, though it seems to be doing well. No idea what it is though. No signs of any flowers yet.

Mystery #5

Here's another thriving-since-transplanted-to-raised-bed-despite-being-ignored plant. Like the previous one, no signs of any flowers and no clue as to what it could be.

Mystery#6

I know this phrase has been thoroughly abused throughout this post but I'll say it again: this plant is all over the garden. More specifically, the southern half of the garden is overrun.

Mystery #7

Random green #3 has been sadly ignored mostly because of its small size. Scattered around the garden, it's been literally overshadowed by the much taller celandines and Mystery #6s. I forgot to take a photo of the entire plant - it's ground cover-y and the plants are maybe 8-10 inches across. The flowers are more of a pinkish purple than how it looks in the photo.

Mystery #8

Just noticed this one on the weekend. Pretty similar in size and form to Mysteries #2 and #5 but the leaves show it's definitely a different plant. Which one? We have no idea.

Mystery #9

This random green #1 was ignored after we transplanted it to the raised bed. We noticed on the weekend that some flowers are starting. When we looked back to figure out what this thing looked like to begin with, it was hard to believe random green #1 became so toothy (on the leaf front) and tall.

Update: Daisy!

In the middle of writing this massively long post, we set off to do a grocery run and ended up perusing the perennial plants for sale at the store. We picked up a couple of new plants (which I'll leave to a future post) and, more importantly, identified a couple of our mysteries. Mystery #9 is some kind of daisy! Knowing that, it seems quite obvious looking at the little buds that some daisies are waiting to burst out.

Mystery #10

This is the newest discovery. We hadn't noticed this one until we started chopping up the celandine that was surrounding it. I quite like how the leaves are clumped together to look like a flower. Not having any clue what it is and not finding it in the wildflower, weeds, or invasive plants book, we've left it for now until we can identify it.

Update: Columbine!

Another grocery store discovery - and good timing too because we just found this one on the weekend. I took another look and found a few more of these plants hidden among the celandine. Sweet! Thank you, Zehr's!


So that's it. Apologies for the absurdly long post. To be honest, we're using this as something of a record-keeping tool as well as a plea to any green thumbs out there who may be able to help with our Great Plant Identification Project. If you made it to the bottom: well done, friend. You deserve a nice, muddy pat on the back.