Plant ID help

[OliviaRwhite]

My flower border is completely overgrown with weeds (creeping buttercup, herb robert, alkanet), lots of what I think is forget me not, and other stuff I don’t quite know what... Please could someone more knowledgeable than me help.

One had leaves like a lily, and is popping up in a few separate areas.

Another looks like it could be a geranium.

One has fuzzy leaves and is in a small clump.

And one had green stuff that look like chives.

Here’s the last pic, I couldn’t add it earlier.

Also, I think there was some catmint and verbena Bonaire last year. Does anyone know how I might identify them at this stage before I end up weeding them out by accident?

TIA

From left to right...

1. Cuckoo-pint, also known as lord and ladies. Weed. It is in the arum lily family.

2. Columbine, also known as 'Granny's bonnet' (you'll see why when it flowers). Very pretty, not a weed (although they do self-sow like weeds)!

3. Lambs ears, good ground cover and fun to feel the leaves! Also not a weed.

I can't see a photo of the plant that may be chives?

Cross posted.

Got it. A bit hard to tell - do you have a picture that's in focus (sorry!)?

Do you have photos of the potential catmint plants and verbena seedlings?

@Poppins2016 thank you so much! Will take a few more pictures when I’m out later today!

1. Cuckoo pint, lords and ladies, jack in the pulpit, arum maculatum. A native wildflower
2. Aquilegia, columbine, probably of garden origin although it is also a native wildflower
3. lambs ears, I can't remember the scientific name, not a native wildflower
4. no chives - it appears to have flat leaves whereas chives have leaves which are circular in section

Don't get hooked up on whether something is a weed or not, a weed is only a plant growing where you don't want it, it isn't an attribute of the plant itself, eg aquilegia, forget-me-not - both can be "weeds" if they're self seeding themselves in abundance into places you don't want, but both are grown deliberately by people as garden flowers. So none of us can tell you something is a weed - that's your decision entirely. We can only tell you whetehr it self-seeds over-enthusiastically (like herb robert - and the white form of that is sold as a garden plant) or has runners and gets everywhere - like creeping buttercup.

I agree with MereDint’s identifications (and about things being weeds only if you don’t want them).

I’m puzzling over the fourth one. Have you seen it in flower? Definitely not chives, but I’m wondering whether it might be schizostylus or one of the thinner-leaved hemerocallis (although I wouldn’t expect it to be so far above ground in February).

Agree with previous pp. lamb’s ears is Stachys lanata.

The first one is a bugger to control, make sure you dig deep and get the bulb out. And then do it again next year, there's always a few where the bulb escapes.

Thank you everyone for all of the very helpful responses. I’m still very much a gardening novice, and with two young children the garden has been fairly neglected since we moved here.

Here is another picture of the 4th one.

We also have lots of long leaves things popping up through the lawn - I don’t think I’ve ever seen them flower as we usually mow over them from March - Sept, but they keep popping through.

Trying to find a picture from a previous summer. I can only see one from a couple of years ago before fence was replaced and a couple of the trees were removed as they blew down in a storm. You might be able to see if you zoom into right hand corner.

I think the last pic does look like chives or possibly wild garlic.

Could be chives (what do the leaves smell like if you break them)? Or possibly allium seedlings (e.g. drumstick allium - sphaerocephalon - my self sown seedlings have grown in a similar clump)... those would also smell oniony (same family)... difficult to say without seeing in person (sorry OP!). The true test will be seeing what happens when they flower! Chives will flower with lots of small pretty purple spheres.
Definitely not wild garlic (the leaves are broader and not chive like at all, have a Google!).

I'm not 100% sure about the leaves in your lawn... they'll be some kind of bulb but it's difficult to tell due to the condition of the leaves!
My 'educated guess' is grape hyacinth (muscari) as leaves start appearing in the autumn in order to gather energy before flowering in spring (those 'starter' leaves usually get killed by frost and the bulbs then shoot up more leaves in spring). If you stop mowing them(!) you'll be rewarded by very pretty little blue flowers.

OP, your 4th pic - snap one of the long thin leaves in half, rub firmly in your fingers and sniff it. If there’s a strong smell of onion then it probably is chives.

@Babdoc

OP, your 4th pic - snap one of the long thin leaves in half, rub firmly in your fingers and sniff it. If there’s a strong smell of onion then it probably is chives.

If it smells of onion it ill be onion family. But unless the leaves are circular in section (and they don't look as if they are) it won't be chives.

The ones in the lawn look like daffodils. They probably won't flower if you've been mowing them from March every year - you're depriving them of 6 weeks growth and food production and therefore depleting the bulbs. Carry on with your current regime and you'll be rid of them in another couple of years.

On the other hand, if you do want to get them in flowering condition delay lawn mowing till end May, when the leaves are dying down. Or dig them out and transfer into a border.