Ok, Im starting to agree with GBH (work, sell)

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by maxamom79

Oh we can't wait! We are still amazed that the trees are taller than a one story house! All the trees and natural beauty is just beautiful!!!

Oh, boy! This is the UGLY season. Get ready. The show is about to start. It is truly breathtaking. Wait until you see the flowering trees, growing wild in the forests. I still can't get over that.

[goodbyehollywood]

While I am all in favor of flowering-- yay, sun!!!-- I am not so much in favor of those little purple stalky things growing in my lawn. They were growing in a woodsy area behind my house and I thought, "Oh, how pretty." Now they've blown over and are rooting in my yard and I'm thinking, "Not so pretty." They look like purple gumdrops on a short stalky stem. Anybody know what they are and what to do about them?

You'd think my black thumb would kill them, but I guess that's only for plants I purchase.

[maxamom79]

Originally Posted by goodbyehollywood

While I am all in favor of flowering-- yay, sun!!!-- I am not so much in favor of those little purple stalky things growing in my lawn. They were growing in a woodsy area behind my house and I thought, "Oh, how pretty." Now they've blown over and are rooting in my yard and I'm thinking, "Not so pretty." They look like purple gumdrops on a short stalky stem. Anybody know what they are and what to do about them?

You'd think my black thumb would kill them, but I guess that's only for plants I purchase.

i have seen those on the lawn of a house in my neighborhood which is for sale...they are cute but they make the rest of the lawn dead looking

[gemkeeper]

Maxamom, I know what you must be feeling about the tall trees coming from San Antonio. It is always such a sight when we return home after a couple of weeks with one of our sons in El Paso.

Wow, never knew that the trees were so gorgeous until you don't see them for awhile. The SE is beautiful and especially E. TN!!

(GBH, do the flowers look like the lirope flower stalks?)

[goodbyehollywood]

No, gem, they're not really like liriope. (Had to look that one up!) The purple bloom is shorter and looks just like a big gumdrop. The entire plant is probably about 3-4" tall.

I think it's groundcover, since it's growing all over a little knoll behind my back fence... only now the wind has blown it across the fence and it's rooting everywhere in my yard, where I just, last fall, had new grass seeded. So I am far less enchanted by its beauty than I was. I know next to nothing about lawns, since they were too thirsty for SoCal, but I do know that you need to get weeds out right away before they take over.

Green grass good; gumdrop weed not good. Grrr...

[bebette]

GBH...Hubby says they sound like the early stages of Dandelions.....once they get past the purple gumdrop stage (which is the ground cover stage), they grow tall and the become the wispy ball that you can pick up and blow and they spread everywhere....or the wind will blow them and your yard will then be covered with them! (Note all of my 'technical' terms.....LOL)

Originally Posted by goodbyehollywood

No, gem, they're not really like liriope. (Had to look that one up!) The purple bloom is shorter and looks just like a big gumdrop. The entire plant is probably about 3-4" tall.

I think it's groundcover, since it's growing all over a little knoll behind my back fence... only now the wind has blown it across the fence and it's rooting everywhere in my yard, where I just, last fall, had new grass seeded. So I am far less enchanted by its beauty than I was. I know next to nothing about lawns, since they were too thirsty for SoCal, but I do know that you need to get weeds out right away before they take over.

Green grass good; gumdrop weed not good. Grrr...

[gemkeeper]

If it is spreading out from the original site - you know, outward-like spokes of a wheel - it could even be something like Periwinkle or Blue Phlox, which are both used as pretty ground covers, but can be invasive.

Any of those invaders will kill your new grass, GBH. Time to call the professionals - WEED WHACKERS, INC.!

[goodbyehollywood]

Thanks, bebette and gem! I can see I'm in over my head. My mother, the Queen of Green, is coming over this weekend to take a look, but it's growing like, well, a weed, so I can tell I'm going to have to resort to professional help.

And I'm sure you both are taking your technical jargon cues from me. "Purple gumdrop weed" is pretty scientific-- right up there with my recent description of my lawn as "all that green grass stuff." I can tell I have really impressed my neighbors. They came over to help figure it out, and after we looked at it for a while, we decided we needed a few cocktails to help us ponder. And that was it for gardening today.

[hiknapster]

Sounds like the brain trust had to convene to ponder. I like it.

[SmokyMtnGal]

I have purple clover in my yard. Here is a pic of it:

Purple Clover (broken link)