Find Your Local Florist:Everything you want to know about flowers!
Yellow Wildflower
Wildflower Leaf
Ask the Expert: What Flower is this?
4 to 6 foot tall
Multiple blooms up to 3 inches in diameter Paul
Plant Expert Reply:
This one was a little tricky the bloom looks like one kind of plant and the leaf another. However, I believe the wildflower you have is a Rudbeckia laciniata. It is a perennial hardy in zones 3-9. It will bloom from mid-summer ot mid-autumn.
Ask the Expert: pink flower ID
Everyone asks me what kind of flower it is, and I don\’t have an answer. It is a shrubby spreader. Pink flowers with about 4-5 delicate petals and a fluffy yellow center. Sort of reminds me a bit of a pink dogwood blossom. It has firm stocks that feel like velvet, with multiple round buds that have taken weeks to open up this summer. Large green leaves, similar to a grape leaf. About 3-5 feet tall. Thanks for your help in solving this mystery. Kimberly
Plant Expert Reply:
Anemone Hupehensis
Without a picture I am taking a stab in the dark. I think it is an Anemone hupehensis sometimes called a Chinese anemone. I found a picture of this type of anemone on the Missouri Botanical Garden site.
Does your flower look anything like this one?
This particular Anemone is a woody-based, fibrous rootstock perennial. It blooms mid-summer to autumn with pink or white flowers. It can get up to 3′ in height and 16″ in width.
Ask the Expert: What is this flower?
ZInnia
Planted Butterfly Weed seeds (Asclepias tuberosa) from a seed packet and this plant seed was in this packet with them. I like the plant and don’t know if perennial or annual. It is close to 3 feet tall now with 1 to 2 and a half inch pink flowers with 12 to 15 petals. I would like to know it’s name in case it does not come back next spring. Thanks D Jackson
Plant Expert Reply:
From the look of the leaves and the blooms, it is a type of Zinnia. It could be Zinnia elegans which is an annual and will not come back next year. Or it could be a Zinnia angustifolia which is also an annual.
Although they are not perennials, the seeds that have dropped may come up the next year. If you like the look of this flower, type profusion zinnias. I have them in my garden and love them. We have been growing and selling them at our garden center for over 5 years. They are easy to care for and perform very well under hot summer temperatures. If you don’t like to deadhead, you’ll like the profusion. Even when I forget to deadhead this plant it still goes like gangbusters.
Ask the Expert: Help identifying flower
Hymenocallis liriosme - Spider Lily
This one popped up in our pasture all by itself at the base of a shady hill. No others like it around. It’s about 18 inches high, with no leaves, just the hollow stalk.
Look familiar? David
Plant Expert Reply:
Do you come from a large family? Well this flower does (Amaryllidaceae). As a result many of the members have the same common name or nickname. For this plant the common name is Spider lily and is used in association with other plants in the family. Besides spider lily, the flower goes by spring spider lily.
With plants the advantage is every plant must have a botanical name that is associated with them only. In this case, it is Hymenocallis liriosme. It is a native plant in AR , LA , MS , OK, and TX; growing flood plains, bottomland, ditches, ravines, repressions, marshes, stream banks, prairie, plains, meadows, pastures, and savannahs. They originate from bulbs and are aromatic with a lemony scent.
Ask the Expert: Is this an Orchid?
Oriental Lily
My neighbor has this plant with beautiful purple & white flowers. I think it is an Orchid, but could not find any photos that looked like it. I want to ID it, so I can buy some for my garden. I hope that it is a perennial & can take full sun.
Do you know what it is?
Thanks, Rob
Plant Expert Reply:
Although the plant has an exotic presentation with it long stem and multiple blooms, it isn’t an orchid. What you neighbor has is a common Oriental lily. I’m not sure exactly which cultivar. These beautiful blooms come from a bulb that is hardy in zones 3-8. Once planted they come back year after year and multiply. Oriental lilies are planted in the spring. However, in some zones they are planted in the fall as well.
Oriental lilies usually bloom in the summer and their cousin Asiatic liles bloom 4 to 5 weeks earlier with a similar form and bloom. They prefer full sun to partial shade. They need to be planted in an area that drains well all year long. You can find Oriental lilies at your local garden center. Be sure to ask them how to amend the soil specifically for oriental lilies in your area.
Oriental lilies can also be used as cut flowers in flower arrangements.
Ask the Expert: I was hoping you could help identify this flower
These photos were taken from a garden in the Chena Village, along the Chena River outside of Fairbanks in July of this year. I was hoping you could identify them, and let me know if they were native. Thank you!
– Margaret
Plant Expert Reply:
The flower you have so lovely captured in the photos above is Delphinium. Florists in Alaska, as well as in other places, use this flower in arrangements because it is one of the few true blue flowers available to them.
Delphinium is a genus of 250 annuals, perennials and biennials. In 1998 while vacationing in Alaska, I saw some of the tallest delphinium I had ever seen. It was in the garden of a lady who was a sled dog racer. I believe Delphinium is native to Alaska. If it isn’t it should be, we saw it everywhere during our two week stay.
Some may call this plant larkspur. The terms are often confused and used interchangeably. However, Larkspur and Delphinium are not really the same plant but closely related. In your pictures the blossom shape looks more like Delphinium.
Ask the Expert: Can you identify this flower?
Veronica spicata
My wife and I saw this flowering plant in a garden near our home and we were intigued. It stands only about a foot tall and the blue flowering stems are only about 6 inches in length. I have attached a picture. Can you identify it for us? Cliff
Plant Expert Reply:
It looks like a perennial called Veronica spicata, possibly ‘Darwin Blue’ or ‘Royal Candles’. I have a different Veronica spicata cultivar ‘Blue Bouquet’ in my garden and I love it. It performs very very in my area and is an attractive backdrop for the soft pink ground cover rose in my garden. Veronica is also known as Speedwell and a fantastic summer bloomer.
Crinum Lily
Ask the Expert: id a mexican flowering plant
If found this flowering plant in Matzaclan, Mexico. It maybe from a buld. There was no one to ask what it was, so I took a picture of it. Maybe you can id it or let me know where I can go to get identified.
thanks,
Dan
Plant Expert Reply:
It looks like a Crinum Lily – maybe a Crinum strictum or Crinum americanum. Crinum strictum are native to Mexico and is sometimes referred to as Texas Swamplily. It is a bulb which reproduces very slowly. If left undisturbed will bloom with out fail for many years.
Hoya Flower & Leaf
Ask the Expert: What is this plant?
Hi,
A friend of mine had a plant that he inherited with his office. It had nice shiny leaves that grew on long vines. They’re about 4′ long. Green with small white spots. I took a clipping.
It took some years (3), but it finally stared to grow. It just grows and grows. It never bloomed until a few weeks ago (3 more years), and then I got these little sprays of 5-petal pink flowers that are about 1/2′ across. There are 17 on one spray.
What is this and what do I do with the flowers?
Thanks,
Kevin Ansley
Plant Expert Reply:
Your plant goes by the name Hoya , wax flower, wax plant, wax vine. The genus for this plant is Hoya and it has many species within this genus. I believe from the bloom and the leaf that you have Hoya carnosa.
You probably have noticed that the blooms are very fragrant. You don’t have to do anything with the blooms until they are spent. When the bloom has deteriorated beyond attractiveness simply cut it away from the vine.
Crocosmia - Montbretia
Ask the Expert: Do you know what this flower is?
This flower appeared in my mom’s garden in SW Virgina and is in bloom now. She does not remember planting it but we don’t think it is a wildflower either. Any ideas? Jerusha
Plant Expert Reply:
The plant is called Crocosmia aurea, commonly known as Montbretia. It is a clump-forming cormous perennial that is often used as a cut flower. I have a variety of this in my garden. Mine is called ‘Lucifer’, but I’m not sure which type you have. I sometimes cut the blooms and use them with other flowers from my garden in an arrangement for my kitchen. It is definitely a keeper. In fact, Monbretia is one of the few perennials my husband says is a must in any garden.
Although Crocosmia will germinate from seed, the only way I have every started the plant in my garden is with the corms. Crocosmia is nice perennial that comes up every year with out any extra care and the clump will increase slightly each year. It will bloom off and on June through August. I make sure mine is mulched going into winter and fertilize it occasionally during the growing season. I basically ignore this plant and it still performs for me year after year. So enjoy this mysterious flower gift.
