Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Strange Flower

I have planted a lot of flowers over the years.  I usually recognize them when I see them.  I appreciate some (like Brown-Eyed Susans) that self-sow in places they like better than where I originally planted a few a decade ago.  I have a lot of those now in clumps scaterred around a corner of the yard.
I've been planting other self-sowers in other spots (seems efficient).  If they survive like the Susans and spread around, it will be interesting.  When I plant annuals, I tend to be very geometric, but these I will let wander where they may.  In fact, I'll snip the flower heads, rub the seedheads in my hand into a bowl to separate the seeds and just scatter them everywhere I don't mow. 

If it works, great - Flowers Everywhere.  If not, no loss...

I know it works in general, because last Fall, I collected seedheads from the Pollinator Bed and scatterred them back in and added a thin layer of leaf compost to cover lightly.  I got mostly just one kind though.  I don't know what it is, but orange flowers are nice and the bees love them.
But the strange flower is this...
I've never seen that in the yard, and I've sure never planted anything like that.  It's 16" tall.  The flower lasted 2 days and I don't see another bloom coming.

I may take a walk around the neighborhood to see if someone is growing those to ask what it is.  Of course, if anyone here recognizes it, that would be good...

7 comments:

Megan said...

I'm not a gardener, Mark, but it looks like an hibiscus to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus

Megan
Sydney, Australia

Just Ducky said...

agree with the hibiscus.

da bear said...

Its wild Okra, common us South Georgia

Mark's Mews (Marley, Lori, Loki, and Binq) said...

da bear - The wild edible-pod okra flower sure looks similar to hibiscus, and they are related. But the leaf structure is a bit different. I have marked the spot with a small landscaping flag to see if it shows up again next year and if so, how large it gets.

It has been too long since I've heard from you. If you would send me an email to the address I show on either of my 2 blogs, I would love to talk about how things have been going.

In either case, thanks for following my blogs...

Cavebear

da bear said...

will a rose of sharon grow that far north?

pilch92 said...

I was thinking hibiscus too, but they are usually tall.

suzanprincess said...

It is a Rose of Sharon, hibiscus family. I have the same blooms in my back yard now, in white and also lavender. The white ones reseed like weeds, and either can become small trees! Hummingbirds love them.

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