Since I have started gardening at BG three years ago, I've gone from mild curiosity about what the names of flowers are growing here to mildly obsessive. I often go to davesgarden.com's plant identification forum to inquire about things I don't know. Here's a little run-down of what I've learned lately.
I've always wondered about these stately but cheerful flowers, and I've asked lots of my neighbors what they've been growing, but they always say it's from Italy and they don't know the english name. It seems to fit the description of
Cheriantus, or wallflower.
As everyone knows, shade plants are king at BG, and I love this little one that I dug up from the woods near my parents in law's farm in western Pennsylvania. The good folks at davesgarden have
identified it, correctly, I think, as mayapple, or
Podophyllum peltatum. It's non-invasive but spreads into nice lovely stands, and it thrives in shade. Very unusual leaf shape.
Some people think it's a flower, some call it a weed. Some people call it broadleaf plant, fig buttercup or yellow-star, but according to
davesgarden, the technical name is
Ranunculus ficaria, Lesser Celandine. It certainly seems to fit the description of it, particularly the US Parks Service classification of it as an invasive species in non-native areas.
