What's blooming?

[Opsa]

Okay, I can hear the British and Aussie siblings all ready saying "What's bloomin' what?"  

What's blooming in your garden or neighborhood today?

We've had a span of unseasonably warm weather here in our neck of the northern hemisphere (Washington DC US area). As a result, nearly ALL of our daffodils are either blossoming, fading, or in bud. It's a merry sight to see their bright colors out the window.

In our town the Bradford pears are all flowering. They look like bright white clouds on trunks. I have something in my yard that may be related (okay, spiritually we are all related, but ya know...), a small tree that is now speckled with white blossoms, possibly it's first blossoming year. I didn't plant it, but it may be a volunteer, if that's possible. I thought Bradford pears were hybrids, and sterile. It could also be some sort of wild pear or apple or something, I suppose.

[Aggie]

We have the first flower up in the garden..  I'm not sure what it is.  It's a small blue-flowered bulb that looks like a cross between a dwarf iris and three purple crocuses joined at the hip.

[Opsa]

Could it be Scilla siberica?

[Aggie]

No, apparently it's a reticulated iris.  I had no idea that irises were bulbs; I'm used to the usual rhizomatic types:

[Opsa]

Very pretty!

Most of my iris are from rhizomes, but I have some Dutch iris from bulbs. I don't have any at all blooming, yet. Not even close. Yours must be in a sheltered spot.

[Aggie]

More plant ID help please! I may have to post a photo of this one.  Near one of my rosebushes, there is something that has shot up.  The leaves and growth habit look very much like one of the rubus tribe, but the flowers on this thing are amazing!  It's got BRIGHT yellow blossoms, approximately 3 cm in diameter, that look somewhat like a chrysanthemum. The stems are thornless.

If I had to take a guess based on location, I'd suspect it's the root stock of the rose bush; however, there are some root suckers coming up that don't look anything like this.  It could possibly be a miniature rose that someone has planted, but the blooms don't look like a double rose.

Any ideas?

[Darlica]

Picture please!

I'm sitting on several Garden Lexicons but can't help much without a pic! 

[Aggie]

Let's try this again... 

[Aggie]

Third photo, showing general habit of the plant... it's tall and on canes, like a thornless black raspberry.

I'm very interested to find out if this makes fruit; if it does, it's a dual-purpose wonder.  I'm somewhat skeptical that the double blossoms allow for pollination, so I'm not holding my breath.

[Darlica]

Just what I thought it was...

I'm on it. They are quite common here, there's a big hedge a bit further down our street.  
I'm i a hurry now but I will look it up later.



I have found your mystery plant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerria_japonica and it is a member of the Rosaceae family, native to eastern Asia, in China, Japan and Korea.

My bets are that some other "proper" rose was grafted to its root and now the graft has died but the root remains.

It's really pretty when it becomes a full-grown bush and it flowers trough out the whole summer  on previous seasons growth. 

For online ID of garden plants I recommend http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/442.shtml really nifty. I suppose it is made to decide what plants one should choose for the garden but it can be used to ID plants too. 

[Opsa]

Ahhhhh, Darlica beat me to it. Nice link,too!

I love Japanese Kerria and have tried to grow it in my garden from some suckers from a friend. Didn't take, though. She had big, beautiful bushes of it along her driveway that looked super in early spring. It also comes in an attractive single flower variety, too.

[Aggie]

Thanks for solving the mystery, Sibs!

[Roland Deschain]

My parents had a huge bush of the double flower variety in their garden, which had taken over an area, but I cut over half of it back to the ground, and tied the rest back, for two reasons:-

1 - To allow the white-flowered, and now grossly-deformed, wisteria that was weaving its way through it to get some light.
2 - To increase sunlight for the seedlings on the ground in front of it, as it was leaning forwards.

It's a pretty plant, and in the right place it looks amazing, but be prepared for its long roots to continually spread out and sprout new shoots! It gets hard to dig out when it's really established, so tend to it whenever needed.

[Opsa]

I wish mine had gotten that out of control! it would have felt right at home in my all invasives garden.

We're in bloom-o-pause right now in our garden. The early flowers are fading and the summer ones have begun to bud, but not a lot is in blossom right now. Just the Lady lavendar, the sage, some shasta daisies, a nicotiana alata, and a few yellow loosestrifes.

[pieces o nine]

Although the irises are looking pitiful this week, everything blooming is still purple.