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Help with early spring identification- zone 4

9 years ago

I'd really appreciate help with identifying these-. The house we bought last fall had overrun garden areas because I think the elderly owner couldn't take care of them, but as things are coming up i'm starting to think maybe she was a gardener a few years ago - it's a fun treat for me to find good thigs buried in the weeds and grass! Please don't mind the messiness of the gardens - it's a work in progress! I'm zone 4, these plants are all in partial shade:

1: I know the sedum, but what is the taller narrow one? Thicker than I'd expect for a grass, thinner than the narcissus I planted elsewhere.

2. Several of these- All dried up now, but grouped together like they may have been intentionally put there. Late to start (if they are going to)- I don't see any green there yet.

3. Are these a type of groundcover rose? In late October we had a patch of stringy thorny area with very few leaves. As I'm clearing other parts of the gardens there are surface vines / shallow runners that seem to join to this area, spreading sometimes 15-20 ft, and now many of what I think are the same vines/runners have leaves sprouting all over the place. I ground up a leaf - didn't smell or taste like mint...

Thank you for any help you can offer!

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Comments (8)

tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
9 years ago
The first may be allium that self seeded. Any of those in the area?

tj
engrgirl
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you tsugajunkie- I'm not sure if there was allium or not... Not that I saw or noticed in late October (and we just moved so I haven't seen a spring yet).

#3 - i just googled-maybe thorny raspberries? Didn't see berries last October, but might have been too late...?
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floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
9 years ago
If the first is an allium it will smell of onions.

Can you show a close up of those dead flowers/seed heads at the top of number 2?

I don't think the third is either rose or raspberry. Looks like a perennial to me. Does it have square stems and does it smell of anything in particular?
engrgirl
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you tsugajunkie and floral_uk - I think the first is an allium. Smells and tastes (I just licked it after grinding it up, didn't eat it) like onions. Does anyone know how I'd know if they are an edible type?

A few more photos of #2: the dead seed heads:

Also I did a bit more digging around #3: It doesn't appear to me to have a square stem. There are some fairly thick and "twiggy" runners or vines that run above ground in many places:
You can see at nodes or bumps or whatever they are called there are buds that form upwards, but there also appear to be areas where they send roots down and they establish a little root clump and almost a separate little plant:
I also pulled a section out and took a closeup of the leaves:

I also dug around a bit because the photos above don't show a thorny branch, but in other areas there are thorny branches. BUT - now I'm questioning if they are the same thing or not? Here's what for now I'll call #4 that shows leaves on a thorny branch - I'm not sure if it's the same as #3 or not:

In trying to tell if they are the same thing or not - I pulled two leaves: they are "almost" the same. Does "almost" mean #3 and #4 are something different all together? Or just that #4 is a "more mature" plant so the leaves are slightly faster and different shaped than a "new sprout"? Here is the tops of leaves #3 and #4 compared (#4 on the right, slightly deeper serrations on the leaves):

And here are the backs of the leaves #3 and #4:

I can't tell if I'm going to be happy about these #3 (or #3 and #4 if they are two different things) or not: If they give me edible berries or pretty flowers they may get to stay in some areas, but I'm concerned that they seem to have spread everywhere - each of 5 staggered terraced gardens seems to have some amount of them popping up in them....

Sorry for the long post - I really appreciate the help and want to get to the bottom of this so I know if I should be pulling all of these out of my gardens or not....
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
9 years ago
OK - 4 is a Rubus - Raspberry or Blackberry. The leaflets grow in threes whereas 3 & 4, while looking similar individually, are growing singly, not in threes. So 3 and 4 are not the same as 5.
engrgirl
Original Author
9 years ago
Ok great - I'd love it if the #4 is a raspberry or blackberry - it will stay where it is and I'll hope for some fruit - thank you!

Now my concern is that #3 may be the one that's the worst spreader - the "rubus-like" leaf that comes up in opposed pairs.. a keeper?
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
paul will probably agree ...

try to figure out how to hold your gizmo.. so the pix come upright.. presuming you are going to have a lot of things to ID .. in your new garden ...

ken
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
9 years ago
I got my numbers mixed up there. 4 is the Rubus as I said. But 3 is not. Because you pulled the trifoliate leaves of 4 apart they looked similar to 3's simple leaves but that is misleading.

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