Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Weed schmeed

A week or so ago, I posted a photo of a plant I was trying to identify. I thought it looked cool and if it was something native and easily propagated, then I might want to try and get more of it going in the front yard. When I posted on it, it looked like this and a friend remarked that it looked like a weed. The other day, it started to change a little bit and I still haven't figured out what it is. I almost pulled it because it is smack dab in the middle of a patch of Sweet William and kind of taking away from their blooms. Since it started to get a sort of pink hue, I decided to let it stay.
I went out today and check this out: I am pretty sure this is a keeper. I just hope I can figure out what it is, how to keep it alive for more than a year, or capture some seeds. Any thoughts?

11 comments:

denise said...

my best guess is Great Lobelia?

Chris said...

I am not sure. It looks like most lobelia has a spikey top with mroe flowers. On this one, the flowers are at the base of each leaf. I have looked at just about every weed ID photo and site and am stumped.

Hawk3ye said...

I too am stumped! But fascinated. I tried this site, to no avail... http://weedid.aces.uiuc.edu/index.html

Chris said...

That is a great site but I've had no luck either on it or others like it.

Anonymous said...

They might be Canterbury bells.

Anonymous said...

They might be Canterbury bells.

Anonymous said...

Canterbury bells is my guess.

Chris said...

Hey, I'm pretty sure that's it. Awesome! Bummer, it looks like its an annual. I would guess it got transplanted here by some critter. I'll have to see if I can get seeds off it later this year.

min hus said...

It's definitely Canterbury Bells, I have some too. They come back, not sure about propogation tho.

Chris said...

Yeah, now that more of them have opened up, I can tell they are the Canterbury Bells. Awesome flower - never saw them before and wonder how they got here. I hope they do come back though I want to move and group the Sweet William in this area so that it isn't crowded so much - thought I did a good job of that last year but they all look a little scattered right now.

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness you didn't listen to me Chris! I'm glad you figured it out & hope that you can keep it.

Take care ~ heather