Look very much like Hyacinth. Nice to have a surprise garden in a new
house!

paghat wrote:
In article om, Adam
Schneider wrote:


We just moved into our new house in Portland in July of 2004, so
everything that happens in our yard is new to us. You guys were
helpful in identifying our autumn-flowering cherry tree last fall
(which is STILL blooming, by the way), so I've returned with another
mystery...

All around the front of our house -- under the arbor vitae, the
rhododendrons, the Japanese maple, the hydrangea, and elsewhere --
there are plants coming up. They look like they're some kind of bulbs,
because of the shape of the leaves, the depth underground from which
they come (I dug down 8 inches with a trowel and couldn't find the
roots), and the fact that there was no trace of them late last summer,
and some of them are growing in places that will be 100% shaded once
the Japanese maple's leaves come in.

Having come from Zone 4 (MN), I don't know what to make of stuff
vigorously popping out of the ground in January! Hell, maybe they're
just weeds (but if that were the case, I'd think they'd be more
widespread than just around the front yard).

I took some pictures and posted them he
http://adamschneider.net/misc/mysterybulb.html

Can someone who knows about bulbs and the West Coast take a look and
tell me what we're dealing with here?


Thanks!

Adam


My insta-impression is that it looks like it'll be Hyacinthoides
non-scripta but there are other possibilities such as some species of
grape hyacinth or something else altogether. You'll know for sure in
February or March when they'll have judgeable buds.

-paghat the ratgirl

Robert Chambers wrote:
Look very much like Hyacinth. Nice to have a surprise garden in a new
house!

Not always.

The house I bought a few years back had a mature landscape. Lots of
really great stuff.

But when things started sprouting, I never knew if I was looking at
weeds, or something that was supposed to be there. I ended up leaving
some weeds take over a couple of spots before I knew what they were.
Likewise, I'm sure, but will never know, that I weeded-out some stuff
that should have stayed.

Even so, I'm still glad for my mature landscape. Had I started from
scratch with a new house, I'm sure that I wouldn't have come up with
such a fascinating, and varied landscape.

Anyway, I'm thinking they look like hyacinths. The warm weather of the
past two weeks has got mine sprouting, too.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Compare the newest tax preparation software apps:
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Warren wrote:

Robert Chambers wrote:

Nice to have a surprise garden in a new house!

Not always.

The house I bought a few years back had a mature landscape. Lots of
really great stuff.

But when things started sprouting, I never knew if I was looking at
weeds, or something that was supposed to be there. I ended up leaving
some weeds take over a couple of spots before I knew what they were.

That was my experience last summer with the mallow: I didn't realize it
was a weed until it had colonized a good chunk of my wildflower garden.
(Back in Minneapolis, I had some nice-looking mallow with striped
purple flowers, but the stuff here takes up a lot of space and isn't
very pretty.) As for the mint, I knew that it was technically a weed,
but it didn't bother me; there are weeds and then there are WEEDS.

Moving to a completely different climate (Zone 4 to Zone 8) has been a
challenge. Dandelions and sorrel I know, but there are a lot of other
things that I've never seen before. But today, Jan. 27, I put pansies
in a window box and had the screens open, so I'm not complaining.

Adam

Adam Schneider wrote:

Moving to a completely different climate (Zone 4 to Zone 8) has been a
challenge. Dandelions and sorrel I know, but there are a lot of other
things that I've never seen before. But today, Jan. 27, I put pansies
in a window box and had the screens open, so I'm not complaining.

It is beautiful today, isn't it? I saw the andromeda about ready to
bloom yesterday at work. The bulbs are starting to show--spring's about
here! One of the things I really love about Portland is that spring goes
for *months*!

Kathryn Burlingham wrote:
It is beautiful today, isn't it? I saw the andromeda about ready to
bloom yesterday at work. The bulbs are starting to show--spring's
about here! One of the things I really love about Portland is that
spring goes for *months*!

Don't be fooled. It's only January. Usually this false spring comes in
February, but it's early this year. We still have six or eight weeks
during which the nighttime low can be below 32 for multiple days in a
row, and the daytime high won't get over 50. A February -- or even
March -- ice storm is not an unlikely event.

We've got some nice days to go out and clean-up some of the stuff we
couldn't get to in fall, but it's far too early to get into spring-mode.
Rose pruning time is still about three weeks away. Now would be a good
time to prune grapevines, and if you must get an early start on spring,
dormant spraying of fruit trees.

But spring does *not* come in January in Portland. Not even February!

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Compare the newest tax preparation software apps:
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/taxes/index.html

Warren wrote:

But spring does *not* come in January in Portland. Not even February!

Hon, I grew up in the snowbelt of Upstate New York, where you grab the
first signs of hope pushing their way through the snow. This is spring,
trust me. There are many flavors of spring here, and it goes for months
and months, with new things unfolding all the time.

Don't worry, I'm not thinking of going out and planting peas yet.

Kathryn Burlingham writes:

Don't worry, I'm not thinking of going out and planting peas yet.

is your mother?

Kathryn Burlingham wrote:
Hon, I grew up in the snowbelt of Upstate New York, where you grab the
first signs of hope pushing their way through the snow. This is
spring, trust me. There are many flavors of spring here, and it goes
for months and months, with new things unfolding all the time.

Tell me again how it's spring in a couple of weeks when they shut-down
the city because it's encased in ice.

I come from Wisconsin, where winter meant that we were under snow from
Thanksgiving to Easter. But that was nothing compared to the ice storms
we can (and do) get in Portland.

Thirty-five years in the snow belt, including almost a decade driving a
snowplow, so I was the guy who got up before the roads were cleared. I
never used chains. I never knew anyone who even owned chains. Never had
a need. Now that I'm in this place that has "spring" in January, I need
to have chains in my car, and there are times that I definitely need to
use them.

Don't let the lack of snow or sub-zero temperatures fool you. Winter can
be quite wicked here. The frost damage I had last year was quite
extensive. There are times that I miss something as tame as ten inches
of snow.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Compare the newest tax preparation software apps:
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/taxes/index.html

"Kathryn Burlingham" wrote in message
...
Warren wrote:

But spring does *not* come in January in Portland. Not even February!

Hon, I grew up in the snowbelt of Upstate New York, where you grab the
first signs of hope pushing their way through the snow. This is spring,
trust me. There are many flavors of spring here, and it goes for months
and months, with new things unfolding all the time.

Don't worry, I'm not thinking of going out and planting peas yet.

It is indeed the beginning of Spring in the Pacific Northwest, as far as I'm
concerned. My primroses have been blooming for a week. My callalilies
began blooming last week and my crocuses and daffodils are up, although not
in bloom, yet. I expect them to be blooming soon. Oh, and my daisies are
blooming wildly. Yeah!

Marg

Warren wrote:
Robert Chambers wrote:

Look very much like Hyacinth. Nice to have a surprise garden in a new
house!

Anyway, I'm thinking they look like hyacinths. The warm weather of the
past two weeks has got mine sprouting, too.

Grape hyacinth is a weed in many parts of Portland. Unless you like it,
then whee!

A couple of things to keep a close eye out for are bindweed and
blackberries. Either of those will take over if you let them. Check with
your new neighbors if there's something you're not sure of--if it's a
weed, they should know it.

Kathryn Burlingham wrote:

Warren wrote:

Anyway, I'm thinking they look like hyacinths. The warm weather of the
past two weeks has got mine sprouting, too.

Grape hyacinth is a weed in many parts of Portland. Unless you like it,
then whee!

If it's muscari, that's fine with me. It's not getting in the way of
anything, just coming up under evergreens and rhododendrons. And it
goes away on its own later in the year.

A couple of things to keep a close eye out for are bindweed and
blackberries. Either of those will take over if you let them.

I haven't seen bindweed in our yard, but there's a blackberry bramble
along the driveway (between our house and the neighbors). I keep it
trimmed back for safety's sake but I'm not about to sacrifice the free
desserts we get from it in August.

Check with
your new neighbors if there's something you're not sure of--if it's a
weed, they should know it.

My neighbors are even more clueless than I am about our local weeds,
and some have lived in Portland all their lives! I was talking to
someone on my block who'd never heard of sorrel and didn't realize
there are multiple kinds of dandelions.

Our worst weed here so far has been the bittercress -- this is
something they don't have in Minnesota, as far as I can remember, and
there's loads of it all around our house here. It flowers/seeds when
it's VERY small, and it loves winter.

Adam

Adam Schneider wrote:

Our worst weed here so far has been the bittercress -- this is
something they don't have in Minnesota, as far as I can remember, and
there's loads of it all around our house here. It flowers/seeds when
it's VERY small, and it loves winter.

Hm. I'm not sure what you're referring to, and a quick look at Sunset
Western's weeds pages isn't helping. I might know it if I saw it,
though. But perhaps not, we seem to have a different set of problems.

I do get a lot of Johnny Jump-ups, not that I mind much, and clover in
the lawn, also not something I mind. Also various weed grasses, and a
number of things I don't know the names of, but know to pull out when I
see them.

They should really have a weed seminar somewhere, with examples of
various weeds at different stages so you can recognize them, and
suggestions for the best ways to control them. Perhaps the Master
Gardener group already has one, or could be talked into it.

Kathryn Burlingham wrote:

Adam Schneider wrote:

Our worst weed here so far has been the bittercress -- this is
something they don't have in Minnesota, as far as I can remember, and
there's loads of it all around our house here. It flowers/seeds when
it's VERY small, and it loves winter.

Hm. I'm not sure what you're referring to, and a quick look at Sunset
Western's weeds pages isn't helping. I might know it if I saw it,
though. But perhaps not, we seem to have a different set of problems.

Here's a couple local pages about the evil bittercress:

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nursery-...ress_page.html

http://mint.ippc.orst.edu/bittercress.htm


(I'm not sure which species of "Cardamine" is taking over my yard, but the pictures on these pages give the general idea.)


Adam

Adam Schneider writes:

(I'm not sure which species of "Cardamine" is taking over my yard,
but the pictures on these pages give the general idea.)

seems to be edible. i like eating the enemy.

http://gardenbed.com/source/14/1343_edi.asp

Adam Schneider wrote:

Here's a couple local pages about the evil bittercress:

[snip url to pictures]

Oh, yes, I have that. Attractive little thing, isn't it? It doesn't seem
to win the fight against some of the other, less attractive weeds I get,
so I bear it no animosity.

I may have to try it in a salad, isn't Ann useful?