What plant emerging in spring always looks like a weed to you?
deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
7 years ago
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moliep
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
pinkmauisunset (Zone 5-Central MA)
7 years agoDeannatoby-I'm growing coneflowers for the first time this year so we'll see if they fool me too!
Some of the flowers that looked like weeds to me last year (Nicotiana, Nigella) I now know of two main weeds (which I wasn't sure of at first) that try to overtake my giant hill that i'm trying to turn into a wildflower meadow. but there are some others that came up last year but only one or two of them and I waited to see what they were and they got gigantic and my husband convinced me they were weeds so I finally pulled them. I just figured if they were weeds there would be more than one or two of them.There are some others that came up last year but only one or two of them and I waited to see what they were and they got gigantic and my husband convinced me they were weeds so we finally pulled them. I just figured if they were weeds there would be more than one or two of them.
Here are my mystery gigantic loner weeds that I still think might be nice flowers :)
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why do we like what we like...and will we always?
Comments (13)Hi Elmire, I've thought about this some too, and as I've looked through various pictures I've tried to define what I do and don't like. I tend to like flowers, period. What I like best probably depends on the distance I'm looking at the plant from. Up close, a frilly picotee edge is the greatest thing... but from a distance, a simple single flower probably has the greatest impact. I like big yellow centers and no visible centers, both. I like both singles and doubles, but overall I'd rather have more semi-doubles than anything else, and I like them even better if their petals have some waviness to them. A rose with a subtle color blend to a darker or lighter color on the edge appeals to me hugely... though if the entire yard were composed of those kinds of flowers, there would be too much competition between them. So just a few Mrs. Dudley Cross roses (or roses of those types), sitting perhaps right next to Duchesse De Brabant to help point out the sublime in Mrs. Dudley Cross. I have always liked roses, but less so the hybrid tea forms than their smell. The brief amount of time I had Belinda's Dream with the same form, though, I liked it plenty. It looks especially nice with roses of other forms in a vase. I liked the effects of the tiny Rose Rosette to add variety to a vase of flowers, too. Overall, if I had to name just one favorite flower form, I'd probably go with a rhododendron, especially those with a bit of a frilly and/or picotee edging to the individual flowers within the truss. I love rhododendrons, huge trusses and small ones both. Rhododendrons don't withstand drought well, however, so I wouldn't suggest getting started with them if you can't give them plenty of water during a drought. Oh, no, maybe I should have said the one favorite was a camellia, all kinds of camellias... And daffodils! The Ice Follies variety is pretty much a perfect flower. But peonies (of all kinds) can't be bested by any other flower! Oh, I forgot to say how wonderful the tiny-leaved karume azaleas look when they are covered in a blanket of tiny flowers. They make for spectacular arrangements in a vase too. I like flowers, period. In a mood to really look and appreciate, I can get excited with just a single bloom from a native woods violet. And at that moment, it seems that nothing could best the simple woods violet. I guess the real luxury is in having a good variety of flowering forms, and especially in having them at various times of the year, which roses and camellias are both good at. Though I do have one rhododendron that blooms a bit every fall. I can't think of any flowers I actually don't like, though irises are probably fairly low on the list. I have stronger opinions on garden design than on the flowers themselves. (I'm not into geometrical/formal gardens so much as very informal ones.) Mary...See MoreGarden Phlox - what does it look like in the winter/spring?
Comments (6)If you've ever seen garden phlox before they start to bloom, that's pretty much what they look like after the bloom is finished - especially if you deadhead the spent blooms. A green upright plant in the spring and summer, a brown upright stick in the winter (at least here in colder climates). They can get a little tired looking late in the season. And if it's real hot and muggy, or if planted too close together so the air flow is restricted, or you start getting evening and night time rains, powdery mildew can set in and they'll look dreadful. At the end of the season they can be cut down to the ground, and I'd recommend removing all the cut foliage and dropped leaves and disposing of them any place except in your compost pile. If powdery mildew exists, it can winter over on fallen debris and splash back up to affect plants the next season....See Morewhat plants are you 'editing' this spring?
Comments (21)I dug up two Lady Banksia roses as the huge roots were undermining our fence and our house! Those ladies are STRONG! I'm preparing to shovel prune my Knock Out roses in the future. I've planted crepe myrtles along my cottage fence. When those provide enough shade in the cottage garden, then I'm digging out the KOs because the Japanese Beetle fight makes the roses not worth it anymore. Nepeta note -- I have 'Six Hills Giant' and 'Walkers Low'. Of the two, the Six Hills is fabulous, but Walkers Low has never put on as good a show or shape as the Six Hills. Both are loved by bees and they'd be terribly upset with me if I got rid of those. That said, I have the space for them, too. After more than 90 days of temperatures over 90 degrees last summer and the fact that we are already in SEVERE DROUGHT here, I've made the decision to not add any new varieties of plants to the garden. I will only increase numbers of existing plants that sailed through the heat unscathed -- agastache, salvia, Russian sage, flax, buddleia, lavender, stachys, gaillardia, coneflowers, sedum, coreopsis and shastas. I'm already having to water the garden to try to keep my spring flower seedlings growing. It's so dry! Cameron...See MoreWhat pre-emergent do U use? For weeds.
Comments (5)Hi Nicole, IÂve never used Preen either. Thought about it a couple timesÂbut the stuff is just so darn expensive! The best thing IÂve foundÂand definitely the least expensiveÂis elbow grease! I really works! ;-) If you stay on top of it and pull weeds out as soon as you see them, they only have the beginning seed root and are VERY easy to pull out. And the good news is that it gets easier and easier all the time. The first year I spread out the pile of soil that was next to my house, and planted my first veggie garden, it was an insane mass of weed seedlings! There had been weeds growing AND going to seed in the pile of "scrap" dirt probably for years when I moved in. The first year I actually hoed a bunch of them a couple times. But now, every year there are fewer and fewer. There are always a few seeds that blow in or are dropped by birds, but itÂs really quite manageable by now. With flowers, even iris, I still recommend a good natural mulchÂI like small bark. Just keep it thinner around the iris. Then watch for weed seedlings and get them as soon as theyÂre big enough to get hold of. Unless itÂs an area where there have been weeds going to seed, you shouldnÂt have that much of a problem. And if you have things in there with established roots, like bindweed, Preen wonÂt help for that. I still have a couple places where old bindweed comes up, and I carefully spray just those individual plants whenever I see themÂdo that with the bindweed and the eternal cottonwood trees that are everywhere in my yard. I use Roundup for any areas that donÂt have grass, and Weed-B-Gon for anywhere in the lawn. If you start to pull out the tiny, little seedlings, I think you may be pleasantly surprised that itÂs not as bad as you expect. Skybird...See More
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agopinkmauisunset (Zone 5-Central MA)
7 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
7 years agokitasei
7 years agomoliep
7 years agopinkmauisunset (Zone 5-Central MA)
7 years ago
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deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5bOriginal Author