What Is It? Flowers in my Garden Now

I need some help. I have some things growing in my yard and I don’t know what I’ve planted. Or the birds planted. Whatever. Mystery flowers that I can’t seem to find in the books around our house.

It’s blue and reminds me a little of a shooting star. The leaves are huge and fuzzy, like the leaves on the borage. I think it came in a packet of wildflower seeds I sowed last summer.It came up behind my irises, between the dahlia that never bloomed last year (but is blooming this year) and the holly hock and the Russian sage.

And this. It’s a biennial, I know that. It came up in the veggie garden last year and the silvery-green leaves were interesting, so Don let it grow. this year it bloomed. I have one in my flower beds that is in the first year state: just leaves.

It almost reminds me of a four-o’clock. The birds must have planted it in our yard because it didn’t come up where I’ve dropped wild flower (or other) seeds).

I know almost every thing else that is blooming in my yard:

I had to snoop out this – another wildflower seed mystery. It was supposed to be a packet of Pacific Northwest wildflowers, but this is a common evening primrose. The guide books list it as native to the east coast and a common transplant in the west. It’s also a biennial. And it was much prettier – before Murphy stepped on it and it ended up growing sideways. Resilient wildflower! (I think I can get a better photo now – the side stems are blooming. When I took this photo, I had to crawl under the peony where it landed when Murphy broke the main stalk,)

candytuft – I love this particular wildflower. It’s a self-seeding annual & if you keep it dead-headed, it will bloom all summer. I fell behind in that this year and a lot of it is reseeding instead of reblooming. But that means more blooms next year. Nice cut flower for my collection of vases!

This is the silver-leaf arnica that Don dug up for me last year. It’s taking over the flower bed and expanding with new starts this year. I’ll have to divide it in the fall! It’s showy, attracts bees and is a lovely cut flower.

This is a bush mallow we bought at Portland Nursery. I guess it can grow to 15′ ?? It does get quite tall, but I cut it back in the winter. Very showy and it makes a great cut flower in a large vase.

My “black” hollyhock. I have several hollyhocks (biennials!), but this is my favorite. When I was a little girl, we had hollyhocks growing wild in the yard and my dad hated them. I never understood why he hated them so. They aren’t great cut flowers, but you can make hollyhock “ladies” (I’m sensing the need for a blog on that!) and they’re just showy garden flowers.

This flower is a mistake to let into your yard. I’ve done it before and I honestly don’t know how it got into my garden this year unless it came from that packet of wildflower seeds. I’ll tolerate it this year and maybe next, but then I will have to rip it out (and all the underground trailing roots!!!!) because it is very, very invasive. But, darn – it is so pretty and it makes excellent cut flowers, the bees love it and so do the hummingbirds! You just have to love fireweed despite it’s overgrown tendencies.

We thought we lost this baby. It’s a “tender annual” that we purchased from Portland Nursery two years ago. Nothing came up last year. But this year – I tossed some random seeds and several came up. Datura Lilac. It’s a highly poisonous jimsonweed. Certainly pretty, though! Not a good cut flower – it blooms one day and fades, like the daylilies. Then more blossoms come on.

I confess, this isn’t even in my flower garden. It’s in the vegetable garden. But it is pretty! Yukon Gold potato vine.

And my climbing nasturtiums. With little tendrils of borage in the foreground. The stupid borage plants have taken over my garden and now stand 6′ tall by 6′ wide and 6′ deep. And I’ve tied them up to no avail. I’ll have to divide and move them.

But the nasturtiums are thriving in spite of the borage.

I have Shasta daisies, daylilies and a variety of pansies in bloom right now, too. All flowers I can identify (common names, at least!). But I really can’t figure out what those first two pictured are. I think the purple one is a four o’clock, but I can’t seem to come close on the blue one.

I’m open to suggestions and – better! – actual identification!

Thank you!