One mystery down, one to go (and more to discover!)

Last year I posted about this little flower that someone had identified as a Shooting Star. Nope, not a Shooting Star. It remained a mystery to me - although I'm embarrassed to see now that in the comments someone did identify the flower! It's Tulipa Tarda. Basically it's a dwarf tulip and it likes to spread, almost like a ground cover.



The poor little guy got absolutely trampled this year (you can kind of see the broken up leaves in the picture). Basically, when the leaves start coming out, it looks like a hosta and I kind of don't stop myself from stomping on hostas (sorry hosta lovers). The flowers suddenly bloomed last week and I immediately dug them up and moved them to safer spots. I know they've already spread because last year there was one clump with two flowers - this year there were two clumps with 3 or 4 blooms each!

The other mystery plant I mentioned two weeks ago.



One person thought it was purslane, but after comparing photos, I don't think that's what it is. Our next door neighbor's mother-in-law is a professional horticulturalist who helps me identify things now and then. She wasn't sure what the plant was, but she guessed Teucrium, otherwise called Germander. After looking at those photos, I'm not really sure that's what it is either.



The flowers actually just started coming out with tiny little petals. Hopefully eventually I'll figure out what this is.

And I'm sure in the meantime I'll find something else popping up in the yard that needs identifying!