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Mystery moment
There are many people who enjoy seeing birds in their gardens and so they purchase wild bird seed/food to encourage as many varieties as possible. It's a wonderful feeling when a bird has been enticed into your garden especially if you have never seen a particular variety feeding there before. So, I like a good many others place handfuls of mysterious seed concoctions and wait ...
Birds are not usually tidy eaters - they are continually looking to make sure that they are safe and not in any danger. This leads to a fair bit of mess as seeds continually fly in all directions landing in the borders, on the lawn and between paved areas. Which leads me to my current mystery ... some of the seeds from the last batch of bird food landed between the slabs and began to grow very rapidly. I didn't recognise the leaves and thought I'd leave a few of the plants to grow to find out what this mystery plant, whose seeds were apparently in the bird food, was. It has now come into flower ... but I still do not recognise it. Does anyone else have any idea what it could be?
Should we be feeding our wild birds on mystery plants? Could this be one of the reasons why some of the smaller birds are now in decline?
A very kind blogger from the Philippines has provided me with the answer to the name of this flower which she believes is called 'Cosmos.' There are several variations to the Cosmos flower and confusingly the leaves also vary. Although, thanks to Purpled Sky I have now been able to name this lovely flower that came free in the bird seed.
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6 comments:
It could be a member of the galardia (sp?)family (Blanket flower). These flowers do not last long, a day or two, and die looking somewhat looking like dandelions (fuzzy), but the leaves don't look right. I would take the picture to a nursery and also go armed with a list of the bird seed's contents, if they were listed. We are lucky here in Idaho, we have a great store that makes their own seed for our local wild birds and they list the contents and yes! they do sprout too, or not if I am willing to pay double for "No Sprout", but I sometimes think that if it does not sprout, it probably lacks nutrition too. Good luck with the mystery search and let us know if you do find out.
What a wonderful blog. i thoroughly enjoyed going through the old and the new posts!!
I think it's best if we let the birds decide if they want to visit us or not.
We usually get a dozen sparrows twittering around in our terrace garden,and some other small birds as well.You never know if food for some bird is harmful to another..best leave them be.
I love mysteries and surprises!!!
Love dropping into your blog, welcome to my blogroll
It reminds me of some type of coreopsis, taking it to a nursery is surely your best bet!
back here, at home (i live in the Philippines) we call that flower COSMOS. the flowers will mature into seeds very much like marigold does. and yes, birds eat the seeds. Cosmos grow wild here, too.
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