What are these weird pink things?

I don't have a pic of them yet but they seem to be pretty common.

They grow up on stalks like peonies, they look like amaryllis of some sort, they are sweetheart pink with long fluttery petals, a bit like feather dusters. They seem to like full bore sun.

I have a couple of volunteers smack in the middle of my lawn, my mother has a few too.

They are blooming now.

Talking about these? I don't think they self sow but a lot of people plant them in strange places like the middle of the lawn. I guess because they just pop up and bloom with no leaves. Sort of a plant joke. LOL

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/517/index.html

That's IT! THANK you.

I can't believe you honed right in on it with that pathetic description.

:-D

This message was edited Aug 20, 2006 7:29 PM

So when I read that link more last night, I discovered they are poisonous if ingested. So I ripped them all out this morning and marked the spots so we could pull the bulbs, too.

My mother lives in despair that her daughters will come along and trash her garden at the drop of a hat.

We keep telling her...no ever greens, no lillies, etc, etc....

She kills roses. She's a big believer in pre-packaged food so fresh herbs don't excite her.

Now if we could only make growing fields of alfalfa beguiling for her we'd be in good shape.

If you pull up everything in your garden that has any possibility of being poisonous if eaten, you won't have much of anything left.

The only part that's poisonous, and that's pretty low, is the bulb. Are you afraid someone will dig up your bulbs and eat them?

Horses.

They don't generally eat poisonous things, but most of her back garden (where these pink things were) is an apple orchard. If the horses get loose they tend to gravitate there. We "let" her grow anything she wants in the front of the house, they can't get there.

It's just precaution. A lot of these horses aren't ours and we need to be especially careful.

Will they dig up bulbs? I don't know if this helps but my neighbors across the road have horses and there are daylilies growing in the field and the horses apparently don't bother them. There's also trumpet vine and pokeweed growing up against their fence and the horses haven't eaten those.

My mailbox is over there and I used to use Roundup to keep the trumpet vine from swallowing my mailbox but I just use the weed trimmer and pruners now because I imagine it would hurt the horses if they should nibble on anything there.

I'll bet the apple orchard is a big draw. LOL

Nope, they wouldn't dig them up. But who knows what might happen?

When it comes to other people's beasts, I err on the side of caution. My mother's dogs DO dig stuff up and carry it around all over the place. They don't go in the front garden, it's completely seperate from the rest of the property, that's why she has free range there but not in the back.

In general, horses are pretty smart. In summer when things are in bloom, they won't touch anything poisonous. In the winter when everything is dried up and icky, they will, accidentally. Whatever it is that warns them off in the summer, (I'm guessing smell) isn't there in the winter.

So, it's probably WAY overkill to be so cautious....but *shrug*...I can live with being called a worry wart. ; )

Sides, if we give on magic frilly elfie lillies, who knows what else she'd try to plant. I'd go out there and find azaleas in the window boxes on the barn. ; )

I understand. Better safe than sorry. I can't imagine anything worse than dealing with a horse with a tummy ache. LOL Or worse. (not LOL)

Hi Luna, glad you cleared that up, I was a bit lost with your post too.

My daughter lives next to a cow pasture, she checks with her vet. and garden center befores she plants anything close to the fence that the cows might nibble on. The cows are not there every year, the farmer rotates between corn, wheat and cows. It is fun to sit in her living room and see the cows looking at you. LOL