New to the world of plants...can anyone identify these for me?

[GardenDreams]

I have only recently, at the age of 50, fallen so very deeply in love with plants and flowers. My family were keen gardeners, which is rather ironic now, since they are no longer here, so would love some gentle guidance!

I am seeing so many wonderful things absolutely everywhere, from parks to urban streets. I am enchanted with it all. I currently won't be planting or growing my own, but I am an artist learning to incorporate them into my painting, and am fascinated by the microscopic beauty, the shapes and colours, each with their own unique personality. As you can likely tell, it is like having fallen in love, and I can't stop taking photo's everywhere i go.

Is there a decent book to get me started learning more about them, both wild and cultivated (UK)?
Wiki is great but it is too convoluted for a beginner, so something thorough but not so overly-scientific?

I would also love to identify the plants in my photo's, so am posting a couple that particularly intrigue me.

1)The cluster by the red brick wall contains a variety of sorts, but I am specifically interested in the little pink flowers on red stems - these trail out like a rope when unfurled from the wall. (with close up added)

2. The spiny 'fronds' (no idea how to describe them!) were part of a clump of trees and shrubs outside of a little Tesco. They have tiny little black things stuck to them in close ups and I would love to know what they are! (also with a close up added)

3. These charming beauties remind me of kings and queens, they are so very like old fairy tales to me. I am certain that for most of my life I have walked past ALL of these wondrous personalities and ignored them! Hard to believe, now:)

The first two are perennial geraniums, also called cranesbill. I have some in my garden. The last one is a thistle.

You can use Google Lens for this kind of thing.

Thank you so very much! I have observed much spikier, fatter thistles so had no idea, although they do of course share the recognisable shape.
I presume there are many variants? These are so common, probably considered 'weeds' but I do love them.
I am thankful that I have the latest iphone camera to play with - the close ups reveal so many wondrous tiny worlds, and the details are mesmerising.

We are due to move house soon and may only have a small space when settled, but I shall make the most of it when I have the time - a plan for the future.

The second one is Herb Robert, which has quite an acrid smell,

The third one could be mare's Tail/Horse tail pic not so clear.

I tried to upload the large close ups but had to shrink them, sadly.

I will look into google lens, thank you all!

Herb Robert somehow got into our garden & it self seeds everywhere. I just let it flower & then pull it up.

The iNaturalist app is a pretty good free one for identifying what you’ve seen from photos, OP. That should help you identify most wildflowers yourself.

@GardenDreams Have you discovered scented leaf plants yet? If not, a new world awaits! Go to a garden centre & rub the leaves of herbs, scented pelargoniums, lavenders, houttuynia, geranium macrorrhizum. And sniff the flowers of a chocolate cosmos!

As to books, I had some old gardening books off my PILs when I started, so no particular titles to recommend now. But there was a huge book with hundreds of plants in alphabetical order, with colour photos & info on each one - its varieties, where it came from in the world, how to propogate it, where to plant it, etc. I'd say look for something like that unless there's a certain category of plant you're most interested in. You can while away hours just learning about plants & then you'll recognise names & faces when you're out & about.

Thanks everyone!
Unfortunately the terminology is so new to me that I am struggling a little - a brief read on Wiki about buddleia catapulted me straight into organelles and genus/genera (?), a little too much too soon .

Yes to garden centres, not just for a toastie and pot of tea now! It is very much like discovering a whole new world, and says a good deal about where we place our attention. Some of the most beautiful things that I have seen pop up in the most awful, ugly places; forgotten and ignored. So much incredible beauty, and for the most part, absolutely free!

I grew up surrounded by a wonderland of plants and flowers (parents and their greenhouse, etc), and lived on a farm for many years. I certainly did notice and cherished my natural surroundings but always preferred the skeleton shapes and muted colours of the winter months.
This summer has blasted open new doors..i feel insatiable!

Is this also Herb Robert?
It was taken from the same wall a good few weeks ago, I was going to press it. The flowers seem a little different? They were all growing together in a mass.

That one is ivy leaved toadflax - likes cracks in walls

Lovely, thank you! @minipie!

I have downloaded the inaturalist app and added a few, it wasn't able to closely identify anything though. Interesting to view other local images. Will definitely enjoy this.
Also tried google lens, it failed to identify a tree that I love, aaaggh!
I wish there was a dedicated 'identify this' thread on MN.

Just on the off chance, here it is, in February, south Cumbria:

Do get some old fashioned books! The ones that group plants by habitat are very useful - if the plant is in a hedgerow for example, you can go straight to that section. With books you will learn much more quickly how you can tell something is some kind of trefoil or cranesbill or whatever. So next time you see something with similar features you can get on the right track. You’ll learn to look at a whole load of clues like leaf type, stem shape, bark, flowers, fruits, seeds, time of year it grows and its habitat.

Apps can get it very wrong because all they do is compare your snapshot to a database. They can’t say to you ah no, it isn’t that, it’s way too big / the leaves are too smooth / it only grows in Tasmania, like a human being can.

Here are some of my books - all old - one is a kids’ book but they can be very useful and fun! A field guide is what you need if you want to take something out with you. I also have a massive RHS encyclopaedia that I picked up cheaply in a bookshop, which is great for garden flowers, but wildflowers are my real interest.

This is an excellent tip, thank you so much for taking the time to share it! I will have a look on ebay, or even rustle through some of our old family books that are stored away. I see what you mean about the apps, and the internet does tend to fly around a little too much. A lot of bite sized info with little overall context.
Most books on Amazon are aimed at creating a garden, which isn't where I am at present. One day...

Just seen this too https://bsbi.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/BSBI-News-145-Beginners-Corner.pdf

And there are some lovely second hand field guides on World of Books for a few quid - also this looks promising https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/shop/products/concise-wildflower-guide

Hopefully some of the very knowledgeable people on this forum will be along later with lots more tips.

That tree looks like an oak, but it's a bit harder to tell in winter at a distance. If you can go back and get a picture of a leaf, it'll be easy to confirm it.

Hello GardenDreams,

Some charity shops are a great source for second hand books. In some towns Oxfam have specific book 📚 and music 🎶 stores. Abebooks is another good source online along with eBay.

Look out for books by Roger Philips who also wrote co-wrote with Martyn Rix.

Happy gardening
👩‍🌾

Also worth keeping your eyes 👀 peeled for

👩‍🌾

I still have my gardening books that I must have owned for over 30 years.

You are right about areas of wild flowers. Some of the best places to see them are railway embankments because they are inaccessible to the public.

I love looking at other people's gardens as well.

That tree looks like an oak, but it's a bit harder to tell in winter at a distance. If you can go back and get a picture of a leaf, it'll be easy to confirm it.

And then of course there's more than one sort of oak in the U.K. - this explains how to tell them apart, and gives some idea about the sort of features to look for when trying to identify plants.

www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/complete-guide-to-oak-trees/

Don't hesitate to ask about IDs here, there's lots of people some of whom are very knowledgeable and others who'll be delighted to share your explorations and learn more. Looking at the plants growing from an old wall can be truly delightful!

If you are still after an ID for number 2 with the spiney fronds - I think it is a Cotinus coggygria aka the smoke bush. It is a medium sized shrub that has fluffy flowers which, when they are over, leave behind that structure of little stems.

Yes, they are a geranium. Some Geranium species are called cranesbill, but this particular one is Geranium robertianum, Herb Robert. The last one is Creeping Thistle, Cirsium arvense.

Bear with me in this paragraph - it will be useful long term. Plants (and every other living being) have a scientific name, based on their place in the evolutionary tree. There are various higher order divisions, then you get down to family, within family, genus, and within genus, species. The scientific name is made of genus and species. So if you see “Cirsium” you know it’s a thistle, and the second word tells you which one. Most wildflower books are arranged by family and genus, which, when you get used to it, makes it much quicker and more certain to identify than for example arranging by colour.

I learned my wildflowers from the Blamey and Fitter that @FictionalCharacter recommended, bottom LH corner, though as my knowledge has increased and my need to identify rarer flowers I have moved on to more advanced books. Paintings/drawings are better than photographs for id as they are drawn to highlight the important characters. So I wouldn’t use Phillips to identify, only as s check tgat my id wasn’t wildly out. You’ll understand what I mean if you look at his grasses book

You’ve had the “app warning” - take it seriously, always research the answer given as it may be completely wrong (they’re rarely slightly wrong). But if you’ve got the latest iPhone, when you take a photo, I think it’s on the preview, there’s an i button which if pressed does the same pattern-matching id function as all the other apps.

I thought it was creping toadflax, or is that the same thing?

Flower shape is key to identification, they are the sexual parts, and determine who can mate with who, and therefore who’s related to who.

Herb Robert has 5 petals in a radially symmetric flower. A common flower shape, and the Geranium family is one of several with this flower shape.

This plant has flowers like little snapdragons, as you can see clearly from your first photo. They look like Chinese dragon heads. It’s Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Cymbalaria muralis. It’s not in the Geranium family, it’s in the Plantain/Antirrhinum family.

if you really want to wow yourself, get a x10 loupe. Better even than the iPhone supermacro.