The owner of the house I live in has recently passed away. In her garden are some beautiful plants which I'd like to identify so I can learn more about them in order to take some with me to the new place I'll soon be moving.
The plants range from a foot to several feet tall, and one is at least my height, 5'6". There are from one to several long stalks growing from the ground for each plant. The leaves are round like nasturtium leaves, and up to 8 inches across, but they are lobed. There are bunches of beautiful, marked flowers all along the stem, up to 10 flower stems sprouting from the same place each leaf meets the stalk. Only 1,2, or 3 flowers in each bunch are blooming at any given time. The flowers are bright purple with bold, darker purple markings, or white with the same bold markings. These started blooming about 2 months ago and have been blooming like crazy since!
I'm almost certain they're perennials or they grew from self-seeding the previous year and that they were not planted by anyone this year. This is central Minnesota, so it must be a bit of a hardy plant to last over the winter if it is a perennial.
They've taken over a mostly sunny corner of the yard, a 6'x6' area, and they seem to be sprouting a few other random places in the yard as well. These new sprouts have just started within the past 2 months.
When I dug one up, the dirt fell right away from the pathetic little root (which was sort of like a tuber, I suppose). The plant got very dramatically droopy, and I thought I'd done it in. But I went ahead and transferred it to a spot I'd cleared in the patch of weeds adjacent to the alley and gave it a good drink anyhow. Much to my surprise, two weeks later and it's not just alive, but growing!
What on earth could this plant be?
The plants range from a foot to several feet tall, and one is at least my height, 5'6". There are from one to several long stalks growing from the ground for each plant. The leaves are round like nasturtium leaves, and up to 8 inches across, but they are lobed. There are bunches of beautiful, marked flowers all along the stem, up to 10 flower stems sprouting from the same place each leaf meets the stalk. Only 1,2, or 3 flowers in each bunch are blooming at any given time. The flowers are bright purple with bold, darker purple markings, or white with the same bold markings. These started blooming about 2 months ago and have been blooming like crazy since!
I'm almost certain they're perennials or they grew from self-seeding the previous year and that they were not planted by anyone this year. This is central Minnesota, so it must be a bit of a hardy plant to last over the winter if it is a perennial.
They've taken over a mostly sunny corner of the yard, a 6'x6' area, and they seem to be sprouting a few other random places in the yard as well. These new sprouts have just started within the past 2 months.
When I dug one up, the dirt fell right away from the pathetic little root (which was sort of like a tuber, I suppose). The plant got very dramatically droopy, and I thought I'd done it in. But I went ahead and transferred it to a spot I'd cleared in the patch of weeds adjacent to the alley and gave it a good drink anyhow. Much to my surprise, two weeks later and it's not just alive, but growing!
What on earth could this plant be?