Weeds Archives - Page 2 of 2

These little guys are about 4-6″ tall. Their leaves look like slightly thicker blades of dark green grass that sometimes have a light colored stripe down the middle. The bulbs are whitish-yellowish, and about the size of a pea but more of a teardrop shape. You can hardly dig a shovel of soil anywhere in the yard without running into at least one of these bulbs. Fortunately they don’t get very big, are gone before too long and aren’t a problem for me.

I did some digging on the net and I believe this is an Ornithogalum umbellatum aka Star of Bethlehem. A member of the Hyacinth or Lily family depending on who you ask. According to all but once source I found, this plant is poisonous, possibly (though rarely) fatal. Something to keep in mind if you have small children or grazing animals.

For the last couple of years I had just assumed that the red berries I had seen all over this time of year were choke cherries. A closer look and a browsing of the net told me differently. These are honeysuckle berries from the species Lonicera maackii if I am not mistaken. The plant can be found pretty much EVERYWHERE in this part of the country and tends to be very invasive. The birds do enjoy the fruit though. I understand the fruit to be edible but bland though I’ve never tried them.

This Dartmoor Butterfly Bush started out as a single plant last spring. This spring when it came up I decided to move it as it was pretty cramped where it was. As I dug it up it came apart into 3 distinct clumps so now I have three. Last fall I picked up a Nanho Blue and a Black Knight but neither of those made it through the winter. I think I planted them a little too late last year and didn’t keep an eye on the water situation

Tag Archives: Weeds

Little bulbs all over my yard.

Wild berries and Butterfly Bush