A few plants for ID

[pinksand]

Plant #1 - Currently blooming in messy flower bed


Plant #2 - Currently blooming


Plant #3 (vigorous vine weed)

[applestar]

#2 is vetch. I like them as early/late N-fixing covercrop and collect seeds so I don't have to keep buying them.

#3 I think is the yellow/white (non-native) -invasive- honeysuckle that smells nice.

[watermelonpunch]

Could #1 be velvetleaf?

No clue about the others.


Edit: I think applestar is right about #3. The leaves do look like that crazy vigorous invasive honeysuckle. I think I didn't recognize it because at the back edge of my yard where they grow along the field, the vines are so thick that I just don't recognize them when they're standing alone! I think last year I posted a single sprout of it that I didn't recognize and applestar identified it for me.

[applestar]

Well, I was thinking that might be Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum). Didn't you say you have them, Pinksand? Mine died so I can't be sure.

[watermelonpunch]

Yes, #1 does look like this:
http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/p ... c1186.html

I'm always searching for velvetleaf because it always comes up as a possibility in my web searches to try & identify weedy plants w/ yellow flowers.
There are too many plants that have yellow flowers IMHO.
(I've never actually seen velvetleaf... not even sure if it grows where I live!)

[!potatoes!]

i don't think #1 is velvetleaf. having such a big flower on top of the plant isn't their thing.

[rainbowgardener]

not velvetleaf which has big soft (velvety! ) leaves:



http://www.commonsensehome.com/wp-conte ... f-leaf.jpg

but I don't know what it is either. There are a million "yellow, daisy-like" flowers.

[MarcP2]

Compare #1 to these photos of Chrysogonum virginianum

http://www.jeffpippen.com/plants/chrysogonum.htm

http://www.plantdelights.com/Chrysogonu ... -for-sale/

[pinksand]

Thank you all! I should have recognized japanese honeysuckle! I never noticed it blooming last year among my neighbors other weeds and crazy vines. Ugh, the honeysuckle is proving to be a nightmare now that we have a fence it wants nothing more than to climb! Here's a link to my thread regarding that problem viewtopic.php?f=10&t=58030

Chrysogonum virginianum looks just like my yellow flower! I'd never heard of them before but looking them up they sound wonderful! I hadn't noticed them in that garden last year. I'm planning to smother that bed because it's so weedy and am planning to save anything favorable to replant there so I'll definitely be saving these guys!

Applestar, do you grow the vetch in your veggie gardens? I have them popping up in really random places among other weeds, but didn't want to pull them because they're so pretty! Should I try to collect the seeds once the flower heads die and sow them in my veggie beds to fix the nitrogen next spring?

[applestar]

They appear in random places because the seed pods snap open and scatter the seeds when they are dry. Plus they are little round balls and roll around.

The vetch is supposed to be a good combo winter/cool season cover crop with oats and field peas. I think I sow them in fall and if they don't come up in fall, they come up in spring.... Sometimes I have a number of "not worth eating" end of the season peas that I let mature to dry peas. If they don't look worthy of being saved for planting, too tiny, blemished, etc. I put them in a collective "cover crop bag".

The "cover crop" ones in the garden get randomly pulled stepped on crumpled when it's time to plant. I don't quite crimp them or turn them under in timely fashion. They grow among my wild strawberries and I just yank them (the roofs usually stay in the ground) when they start blooming and podding -or before they start shading the strawberry plants too much- and then use the vines in situ as green mulch.

If you want to collect seeds, watch closely and as soon as one pod has turned black and popped, start pulling the vines in a paper grocery bag or a pillow case, then keep the sack in hot dry garage, shed, etc. I have missed the window due to busy schedule, etc. and one day they are not quite ready, and in a couple of days they've all popped and scattered.m

[Susan W]

Vetch! The terror weed! It is invasive and tenacious. Unless there is more than one variety, can't imaging using it as a ground cover.

[purpleinopp]

There are about 140 different species of Vicia.

[watermelonpunch]

Not to mention locale differences.
The South has a very different climate than the Northeast. What's an aggressive growing plant south of the Mason Dixon, might not even survive very long where I live, or just not make it anywhere near the top of the annoying weeds list around here.

I don't think I've ever seen hairy vetch, actually.

[pinksand]

Vetch! The terror weed! It is invasive and tenacious. Unless there is more than one variety, can't imaging using it as a ground cover.

Well I ended up tearing it out. It was tucked into a patch of weeds and just too hard to save anyway. I figured I'd play it safe and get rid of it

[purpleinopp]

Watermelon, how true, how true! We used to have spider plants and asparagus ferns in pots, 'house plants.' They escaped into the ground, and are horrible weeds here! Had to get out the shovel to put a stop to those. I used to have to dig up Cannas to store them in the basement for winter but they are reliably hardy here. It's very interesting to move from OH to AL!

IDK of any Vicias considered garden plants, I would have pulled it too, since leaving it would result in many more of the same plant next year, from the seeds dropped by this years' plant. Pulling the other weeds you mention should help keep their numbers lower next year as well. After pulling unwanted sprouts from any particular area before they make flowers, there should be dramatically fewer weeds the following year.