ID Parade

[Shortie]

Hiya

Can anyone tell me what these are? They're growing in my front garden at the moment...

The cerise one is a really hardy bush. The cerise grape-hyacynth type flowers open up as lots on individual flowers and the bees adore it.

The Blue one is a bulb, about a foot tall and has a lovely lily of the vally type smell...?

Cheers all....

[poultrychat]

Hi shortie, I'm not sure but I think the blue flower is a spanish bluebelle and the second is a flowering currant

[bramble]

Shortie,
Dont know about the cerise one but the blue one looks like a hycianth to me.

[Nicos]

Yep- I agree that the blue one looks like a hyasynth that is naturalising. I have planted loads of the outside over the years and they tend to revert to looking like bluebells , but more chunky.
The second one certainly looks like a flowering currant. Got one myself and love it! Looks great next to a forsythia in spring.

[Jaxom]

I agree with the Hyacinth ID. Never heard of them naturalising before. When I planted bulbs and they looked like that I just thought I had been diddled with something other than what was on the packet or that it was an immature Hyacinth and as yet to develop. As I left them in my last garden I never did find out. But now thanks to Nicos I know.
Jax

[poultrychat]

Oh dear, if you are all right then last year I wasn't pulling up spanish bluebelles

[Shortie]

Thanks all.... My initial reaction last year was that it was a hyacynth due to it's it's size and the fact it hadn't spread like wildfire. But looked too large for a bluebell... Now I know, thanks Nicos. It must be slowly naturalising as you say, as last year there was only one...


My garden was unfortunately neglected when we moved in last year as the lady who house it was absolutely loved flower and kitchen gardening but at the age of 92 when she moved into her gransons, hadn't got much done in the run up to her move in the garden (I think we can allow her that break at her age eh?) She is a strong lady though... Swiss, lived in London for the last 70-odd years and never dropped her accent. Used to ride her little motorbike until she was around 70! Sorry, I know so much about her as she lived nextdoor to my Mum and Dad (which means, yes, I bought the house next door to my parents when it came up on sale ) P.S. This is where my monster Rhubharb came from

Anyway.... back to what I was saying....

I'm trying not to bulldoze everything in the garden as I want to try and keep some of her plants for sentimental reasons but as I didn't plant them, have no idea what they are. Thanks for the help all

One last thing about said previous house owner - I have her and my Dad to thank for my Veg gardening.... My Dad used to 'work' her garden for her when her husband died, and it was always mine or my sisters job to pick the runner beans or strawb (funny that, as they're both itchy on the hands! ).

Anyway, it instilled a sense of fun and made me see that home grown is much better. Hope to do this for my son now. My sister and I have both converted half our gardens to kitchen and seem to be against the grain of most of our friends but hey, I don't care. Also had organic homegrown instilled more when my son was born with a servere form of hypospadias which they haven't yet proven but quite a few researchs I read when he was first born suggested a strong link between pesticides in food production and such conditions like this.

Wow... sorry guys I have waffle-itis this morning...One more cup of tea and I'll really have to get dressed for work... oops.. Or maybe I should steer clear of the caffeine!!

P.S My little boy's fine now. Had corrective surgery and should hopefully be signed off as okay in his follow up appointment mext week

[fruit&vegvirgin]

blimey, I would have sworn that was a spanish bluebell! I think I pulled up lots of those last year - never mind, there seem to be a ton more on their way. which is weird, because I have never in my life planted a hyacinth in the garden. (though I might this year - do you have to let them dry off or something? I've got some in a pot in the porch which are almost over...)

shortie - glad to hear your littlie is doing so well. its horrible when they have surgery and they're young isnt it - my now almost 10 year old had grommets at 3, and a squint op at 5, both times were so scary. pray to god she never has to go through it again! my 7 year old, on the other hand, specialises in dramatic injuries - I'll never forget the neck x-ray after she fell off the swing and landed on her head!! - yup, they get bigger and less vulnerable, but there's more drama involved!

[sewer rat]

Shortie
The hardy shrub is definitely a flowering currant (Ribes). I too have never heard of hyacinths naturalising unless you count grape hyacinths which naturalise too bloody easily.
FVV - Could it be that you were pulling up grape hyacinths ?

[poultrychat]

Same here fruit&vegvirgin and I'm certain mine weren't grape hyacinths. I always plant my hyacinths straight into the garden when I cut off the flower spike and they all seem to do very well.

[nick the grief]

just to throw more confusion into the pot, Bluebells are Members of the Hyacynth family And I still think this is a spanish jobby. They hybridize with our native blubells very easily & thats part of the problem. People bought these "bluebells" from garden centres cos they look nice & now they are taking over.

They native one usually has an arching stem & the flowers tend to hang down from this. The Spanish one is more upright (doesn't rain as much there so it doesn't need to shed water) & looks like a straggly hyacynth.

The second plant is defenatley flowering Currant cos I've got one of them in the garden.

[Nicos]

Do I mean 'naturalising' then?? What I mean is that the bulb gets weaker each year and when it flowers ,they tend to get thinner and thinner ,eventually looking like a chunky bluebell. Mine certainly are not spreading! I used to grow a lot of hyacinth when the kids were tiny, and after they had flowered they were planted in the garden infront of a fence. Some of them are still there now, but less come up each year. They still smell nice though if I clamber through the hebaceous border!!!

[nick the grief]

Bluebells

Here are the two for you to compare.

Spanish on the left (not very good colour I'm afraid)



I think your's look like the spanish job

[Jaxom]

Nick you have come up trumps again. Thanks for explaining that Bluebells are Members of the Hyacynth family.
Jax

[nick the grief]

Hyacinthoides hispanicus - to be precise