Mystery plants...can you identify?

We have some things growing in our garden that we can't identify, but they're very pretty and we'd like to keep them and add them to our collection. If anyone knows what these plants are, we'd love to hear from you. (Click on each photo for a closer look.)

Mystery Plant #1
This is a slow-growing viney type plant with a pretty sprawling shape.
We first discovered it early in the spring. It has a much bluer leaf
than surrounding plants and no blooms on it that we can detect.

Mystery Plant #2
Could this be Lupine? That's one of the plants that was supposed to
be in the wildflower mix we planted and we haven't seen it show up
yet. The blue flowers on this plant look like Lupine, but the leaves
don't quite look like the photos we've seen of Lupine. Anyone know?

5 comments :

terry sue said...

Hey Deb, The moss rose is beautiful. Did the ones from last year ever come up?

My question for you is ~ is Mystery plant #1 somewhat "sticky"?

Deborah Raney said...

Hi Terry,
I just walked out to check. The plant isn't sticky in the "gooey" sense or in the "prickly" sense either. It's smooth and dry. Does that help? I'm so curious what this could be. I feel like it would be growing a lot faster if it was a weed.

And no, sorry, the moss rose from last year didn't come back. We must not have it in a protected enough spot to survive the winter.

Kerri said...

Sorry Deborah, I don't know what either of those plants are. That's definitely not lupin. They bloom in the cooler spring weather and yes, the leaf is quite different. Perhaps a search at Dave's Garden website for "blue flowers" might be helpful...or just google blue flowers and see what you come up with.
I'd suggest asking Annie at The Transplantable Rose (link on my sidebar). She can identify almost anything it seems to me, and she'd be happy to help if she can, I'm sure.
It almost looks like Obedient Plant to me, but I don't think that comes in blue. Mine is a purple-ish pink. Penstemon maybe?
Good luck with that.
Don't you just love the bright colors of Portulacas? Your patio plants and yard look lovely. I like that bright green ground cover. Glad it finally took off!

Deborah Raney said...

Thank you, Kerri. I started looking at penstemon sites, and I think you may have hit on something. The leaves threw me off until I came to narrowleaf penstemons! This looks very much like penstemon angustifolius or some sort of beardtongue penstemon, which other sites tell me does grow in Kansas. So until someone tells us otherwise, we'll call this penstemon. I had several little gift packets of mixed wildflowers that we tosssed in with our wildflower seed from Prairie Frontier, so I'm guessing that's where most of our mystery plants have come from. But I wonder where all the mystery WEEDS have come from?? : )

The yellow-green groundcover between the pavers is golden creeping jenny, a Stepables® plant, and we're liking it much better now that it's actually creeping!

Kerri said...

I'm glad I was some help...it was just a lucky guess! Now that you mention Beardstongue it does look like that to me. Not that I'm very familiar with it.
I've done the same thing with mixes...and then had to research what's growing. I always like to know the names :)
Oh yes, the weeds! Don't they grow wonderfully well?
I put creeping jenny in a couple of containers this year for the first time, but I think it's a different variety. Same lovely color though.