20 February 2010

The Seedlings

First, a gratuitous photo of a this daffodil now blooming bright yellow in the back garden.



These were left by the previous owners, and I like them for their ability to announce spring and their grandmotherly, Texas-farm sensibility.

Now to the subject at hand: seedlings! And they are spreading! This is the first year in the garden that I'm noticing significant spreading of plants that I WANT to see spreading (I've got plenty of weeds, but that's a different story). It must be a combination of longevity and weather, but things are finally starting to seed and sow about the garden all by themselves.

They might not be in exactly the right spot, but I'm letting them have it and will relocate them if necessary another year when they are more established. Every day I wander through the gardens, I find something new growing through the mulch that I'm excited to see!

Things like this yellow columbine, Aquilegia chrysantha:



This columbine is growing in a precarious place by the back stair but would be so beautiful blooming up through the cement cracks:



Curly parsley:



Gulf coast penstemon (Penstemon tenuis):



Mexican feathergrass, which is spreading all over the place. I may find this to be an annoyance some day, but until then, the more this spreads around, the more my yard will imitate this Chisos Mtns grassland landscape (lovely!):



Young purple coneflower:



Spiderwort (Tradescantia spp.), which again is something I may curse someday, but until then, I want this baby to spread spread spread. I'm hoping that it's purple flowers will bloom in a big layer behind the yellow blooming columbine.



Hymenoxys (I think), which will grow up to look like the one below it, blooming through winter.





A violet of some kind:



This time of year is quite a guessing game too. I have no idea what this is. Something bad or something good? It'd be cool if it were a black-eyed susan, but I can't be sure. Only time will tell:



And here's something I've been watching for a while with curiosity:



Maybe a blue eye grass?? No idea...

4 comments:

LindaCTG said...

I love this time of year to see what new things show up! You've got quite a nice selection. On the mystery plant with fuzzy leaves, it could be a wild mullein. But I,too, always like to leave unidentified things to see what happens. Not sure if that's a blue-eyed grass. Mine has thinner leaves. Definitely a bulb of some sort. Can't wait to find out what it does, so let us know. What did you decide on the hedge?

Ellie said...

Thanks for posting these pics of baby plants. I have mostly weeds so it is nice to see identified plants so I know what to leave and what to pull (on the rare weeding occasion).

Anonymous said...

Lee, I love this post. Like you, I'm finding new plants showing up in the garden. Some, I believe, are seeds finally sprouting that I scattered many moons ago. But since I'm not recognizing them, I'm either going to have lots of blooms or a big ol' job of weeding ahead of me!

CrescentJoy said...

Love to see pictures of seedlings - I was looking around for pictures like these to identify the babies I'm growing from a mixed wildflower packet. If you like soft woolly leaves, maybe you'd like lambs ears. I absolutely love the ones I started from seeds last year and they grow nicely fast.