Primrose Surprise

I was so surprised and happy to see these beauties in our local park.   Mexican Evening Primrose, a little taste of the best part of Texas Spring, right here in California!

Garden Bloom Day: A Natural Beauty

They're back!  Those beautiful wild pink evening primroses have come up again!   

They even manage to make my messy yard look beautiful.

I can take no credit for planting or cultivating these lovelies.
They were a gift from nature and come up faithfully every year.
I just be careful to mow around them.

See more lovelies at
Garden Bloom Day and Wildflower Wednesday

Wildflower Wednesday - Goldenrod

These wild goldenrod are actually looking pretty gangly in my yard, and I'm in the process of cutting them down before they went to seed, but they sure look pretty up close, and attract some interesting insects...like the beauty above.  Never seen a bug colored like this before!  (Sue of A Corner Garden tells me it's a Ailanthus Moth ...and here I was thinking it was a beetle!)


You can check out more beautiful wildflowers, and link up your own wild finds at Wildflower Wednesday.  And you can find more bugs (and animals) at...

Also linking up at...

Throwback Thursday

Wildflower or Weed?

Thanks for joining me on my continuing hunt to find out what grows wild in my yard and whether it's edible or useful (or a pest that causes of allergies, has prickers, etc.).  Today I want to look at two plants that Ty at the Texas Garden Web Forums helped me Identify. I was hoping they'd have some useful properties (other than looking kinda pretty) but can't find anything about them being edible or medicinal, and their seeds have been described as "annoying balls of velcro" that get  stuck in pet hair (joy.)   These is not a native...but European plants that found its way here and took over.

PLANT #1:  Torilis nodosa
(Knotted Hedge Parsley)

First, the one I THOUGHT might be carrots....

You see, year before last I left some seed packets out accidentally and they blew across my yard.  The next spring I had two carrots grow in a corner I hadn't planted them.  Then after a fire in my backyard hundreds of what seemed to be the same carrot plant sprouted up where the fire had burned.  Here's a picture of some:

What I Thought Were Carrots

I was all excited.  But alas, I think I got excited too soon.

Because here's what my full grown carrots look like (and several more of these did pop up, which is cool):

Actual Carrot Leaves

But this is what the hundreds of little plants grew into...

Torilis nodosa

Torilis nodosa (Bloom)

Torilis nodosa (Leaf Pattern)

As you can tell, it looks very different than the carrot.  While it started with the same sort of lacy rosette of leaves the carrot has, the stem soon split apart into branches and the leaves stayed the same size.  It has flowers that grow on the stem near the leaf nodes, not up at the top like Yarrow or Queen-Anne's-Lace.   The root smells sort of carrot-like.  I can tell you already it's invasive.  Man, I wish these had been carrots!

Plant #2:  Probably Torilis arvensis
(Spreading hedge parsley)

  It's root's also smell carroty, and it has similar leaves, but the flower grows at the top, more like like Yarrow or Queen-Anne's-Lace.  Actually, it VERY much like Queen-Anne's-Lace except the top flowers are smaller and lack the leaves right under the base of the flower shown in this illustration.

 Plant #2

Plant #2 (Blooms)

I am pretty sure this is Torilis arvensis (Spreading Hedge Parsley).   It's root's also smell carroty, and it has similar leaves, but the flower grows at the top, more like like Yarrow or Queen-Anne's-Lace.  Actually, it's VERY much like Queen-Anne's-Lace except the top flowers are smaller and lack the leaves right under the base of the flower shown in this Queen-Anne's-Lace illustration.  As it's name suggests, it's invasive too (but it's at least prettier than the other one).

Oh well.  Time to get the weed whacker out again!

Wildflower Wednesday

Throwback Thursday
Throwback Thursday II 

Today's Flowers - Garden Bloom Day

What's blooming in my garden?

First, what was planted (by me)...

Gazania rigens - African daisy

Flowering Chives

Morning Glory

Salvia

Marigold

Those my neighbor planted...
(creeping through the fence)

And these nature planted for me...

One Texas Bluebonnet
(Literally one, in the smack dab middle of the yard,
but I want more so I'm mowing around it.)

Some Texas Dandelion (a lot more than one)

I don't know what...would love to know!
The flowers look similar to wild carrot,
but they are at every leaf intersection
down the stem, and much smaller.

(Oh no...I found out...a weed!)

Another mystery weed/wildflower

 

Dakota Vervain 

Texas Vervain

Wild Evening Primrose

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Garden Bloom Day

Throwback Thursday

Sky Watch Friday - Flora and Fauna, From a Bugs-eye View

1st Trio:

Wild Primrose

2nd Trio:

Bolting Oak Leaf Lettuce

Plantain

Goldenrod

3st Trio:

Wildflower - Unknown

Flowering Chives - Just budding

Flowering Chives - In Bloom


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Sky Watch Friday
Blooming Friday
Pink Saturday 

Plant Identified: Bowlesia Incana

This plant is Bowlesia incana, common name hoary bowlesia.  According to wikipedia it is a member of the parsley family and a native to South America and the southeastern and southwestern United States.

According to debndal at The Garden Forums it does NOT have any spines or burrs and lasts two winters long.  She didn't notice any flowers on hers, but wikipedia says it grows yellow-green flowers appear in the leaf axils, and the tiny inflated fruit is only 2 millimeters wide.  (Which explains why you might not notice any).

Now, you know I had offered a giveaway to the first person who correctly identified this.  Weel, I had asked about this and a number of other plants both here and on The Garden Forum and THOUGHT no one had been able to identify it yet (thus, the giveaway).  Well, I was wrong.  Somehow I actually missed the VERY FIRST POST on The Garden Forum in which pkponder identified this plant!

So, here's what I'm doing...I'm going to give away free seeds or a postcard to everyone who posted here.  Since I only have one Carl's Jr. Coupon and don't want to waste it, I selected a few people who gave the most helpful answers and am giving it to the first one of them who claims it.

Thanks all!

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Linking up, among other places, at Garden Club Linky

Wildflowers and Wildcrafting Wednessday

I was very excited to find two new blog-hops/linkies this week: Wildflower Wednessday, a place to celebrate wildflowers and  Wildcrafting Wednesday...a blog get together not just about gathering and using wild plants, but about all uses of herbs.  

Why am I so excited?  Because I mow around the wildflowers in my yard (the little gifts I didn't have to plant and cultivate).  Because there's tons of gardening linkies but this is the first I've found that celebrates the roadside flowers too!    Because it's hard to find others who look at the "weeds" in their backyard as useful, not just as something to get rid of.     Though I've been dabbling in wildcrafting since high school, I'm still very in-experienced, and I'm looking forward to learning from everyone.  And I'd love to find some other wildcrafters from Texas, too!

My back yard is fairly weedy.  I like to let some "weeds" (like dandelion) grow because they're useful, and others (like the Texas wildflowers I find) because they're beautiful.  But there's a lot of wild plants in my yard I haven't identified yet.  Some are "old friends."  Some are new neighbors, and  taking to heart the West Texas Gardener's warning to "beware of weeds bearing gifts,"  I'd like to know more about them before I let them take over my yard.  If any of you recognize these plants,  you'ld make my day if you help me identify them, or letting me know if they come with any unwanted surprises (like prickers or thorns), or any benefits (like medicinal or culinary uses). 

Know what any of these are?

Flowers smaller than a dime...texasflip on the Garden Forums
thought this was Oenothera biennis (a type of primrose), 
but I'm not sure.  Going to have to take a closer look at the 
plant and compare it to the pictures I googled.

Thanks so much any info you can give me on these plants!  Much appreciated!


IDENTIFIED - THANKS!
These ones I had asked about were identified.
Thanks a bunch!  Haven't had a chance to look them up
to see if they have any uses or problems associated with them.


This is Sherardia arvensis or Field Madder.  On Wikipedia it said
that the root could be used as a red dye. Thanks to Teri, from the Garden Forums for identifying this!

Ty from the Garden Forums identified this as a vetch (Vicia sp.).

According to wikipedia, though some types of vetches were once used as a food crop, many are toxic to humans.  I checked at the Texas Forager , and since I didn't see this listed as an edible, I'm avoiding it.  I can say from experience this one is pretty invasive...I left just a few of these plants in my yard last year and now they are covering half of it!  Really need to take a whack at them but I've been too busy trying to root out burr clover, my mortal enemy of the yard.

Ty from the Garden Forums and an anonymous poster helped me identify this as a sandmat spurge, possibly Euphorbia serpyllifolia or Euphorbia nutans. but I'm not sure because there's a ton of varieties of this and I didn't try to go through them all.  If it is that one, wikipedia said the Native American's used this medicinally.  This plant has a really unusual feature I discovered last summer.  The seed pods EXPLODE!  Last summer I was walking where a bunch of these were growing, and I kept hearing a popping sound.  Then I actually felt some of the seeds pop onto my leg!  The picture above was taken just before then.

(Oh, and the flowers at the top of the page are Wild Primrose...which is actually edible!  You can eat the flowers and new greens. Haven't tried the flowers yet.  The greens aren't bad, but I hate to take much for fear of having less flowers later.) 

Wildflower Wednesday

Seed Giveaway (Texas Only) - CLOSED

Hello Texans.  How's your summer gardening going?  Difficult with all this heat, isn't it?  I'd like to give away some seeds to one of my readers from Texas (yeah, this one is just for my Texas readers...I'll be putting up another giveaway for everyone soon).   Here's what I'm giving away:

Cinnamon Basil Seeds (from my garden)
One thing I've always been able to get to grow...even in summer heat, even in pots when we in an apartment, is basil.  Several years ago I was given a Cinnamon Basil plant.  It grew wonderfully, but I wasn't all that pleased with the taste (mainly because I'm not that fond of cinnamon, I think...my husband liked it just fine).  Anyways, I collected the seeds, and still have some.  They are several years old, but I've had seeds that old sprout before so I thought I'd like to give them to someone while they still have a chance of germinating.  (Picture by Living in Monrovia on Flickr)

Squash 
I have not yet tried growing squash here, but I gather it does well.  I decided to try another variety so I'm giving these away.

Native Tufted Grass
I have some beautiful long tufted grass in my yard.  You probably do to...but most likely you keep your yard nicely mowed and weeded and wouldn't know it was there.  I discovered this grass after an experiment I did where I let my back yard go "untamed" for a summer to see what wildlife I discovered.   Thought I'd add some to the pack in case you wanted to try some too, without letting your yard turn into a jungle.   Though this is a plant that could be considered a weed..though in my experience it spreads more slowly than some other native grasses.  The three I left standing in our yard last year have only resulted in 4 more grass tufts, and I actually purposefully spread the seed in some other areas.

Horsemint
Another great find from my backyard wildflower experiment was Horsemint!  I've collected some seeds from this years blooms that I'm adding to my giveaway package.

To enter to win these seeds, just leave your e-mail in a comment below, along with the city in Texas you live in.  Only Texas residents may enter to win this giveaway, but I have another seed giveaway for non-Texans, too.

EXTRA  ENTRIES
Get an extra entry for doing any of the following easy good deeds.  A separate comment must be left for each.

1. Click on The Hunger Site Button to give a FREE donation to charity (advertisers pays for your donation).  Comment letting me know you did.
2. Play a vocabulary game at Free Rice to donate grains of rice to the hungry.  Comment with one of the words you were quizzed on.

Giveaway ends June 27.  Winner will be e-mailed and has 3 days to claim prize or it will be forfeited and given to someone else. Must be over 18 or have a parent enter for you.