I took over a garden that was not maintained for many years. I identified about 25 species, but still have about 15 to go. Any help is appreciated with these. Hardiness zone 3/4, rich soil, semi-shady. I've seen all plants around the neighbourhood in other unkept gardens. The first 2 are about 1 foot tall, the third one a bit taller. The fourth picture is growing in an especially shady area, only about half a foot high.
First purple is columbine, second purple looks like wild phlox, 3rd pic has leaves like joe pye weed, but the flowers aren't right... dunno, wait till they open post 'nother pic, 4th pic looks like carrots, or Queen anne's lace.
Thank you! First one is definitely columbine. Have to rule out wild phlox, flowers have 4 petals and wild phlox seems to have 5. 4th pic does look like wild carrot, but seems to not quite fit.
For #4, you may be right, stone. I was going to suggest Osmorhiza berteroi or Sweet Cicely, but I can't see the leaves well enough in the photo. (it's me, not the photo).
Dame's rocket seems spot on. It's dark now, will have to verify tomorrow morning. #4: sweet cicely seems the closest match. Not quite sure about the leaves, but the flowers are definitely very similar: about 20 very tiny flowers on a head, 15 heads in 1 umbel.
Check page three of this section "Plant ID" under the heading "Is this Poison Hemlock? pathe / thread started: May 16th, 2012" Your plant does not appear to be the hemlock - no red splotches on the stem, that I can see,so don't worry about that. This discussion was very interesting on this particular family of plants. This is another family where some of it's nummy but some of it may kill you - sooo be very careful. Here is the only link I can get to work, so I guess it's back to page 3 and Silver Surfer's original post. http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/ato..._maculatum.htm
Barbara the links aren't working. All can be found on this thread... http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=73491
SS Thanks for the heads up. I don't know what I did wrong or why the one works and the others don't. So I left the good one and just referred back to your original post. We have so many people here and in the San Juan Islands that are going back to nature, so to speak, and some don't really know what they are doing. Our Wash. State U (WSU) Master Gardener group was very interested in you references. Especially since the lady that died lived here. We are trying our best to get people to check before they eat!!!
#3 is Dame's Rocket. #4 is really tricky, I am discovering many plants that all look a lot like each other. I can't say exactly who is right here. To stay on the safe side, I think I will simply mow it all down and plant gooseberry :-).
An update on number 3, the big bud that was about to burst. It flowered, here are some pics. Any new ideas?
