Not sure on the first two, but I think QAL is considered invasive.

I did look into Lily of the Valley, since it's the "flower" for May birthdays, and what I found was that they probably won't like our summers and I think they want more water than I'm willing to give them.

Actually Queen annes lace is not a wild flower, it has just naturalized and become invasive in most conditions. Ammi majus is also an introduced plant and is naturalized but not as aggressive, and is a gorgeous substitute for it. It came up in my yard. this year. I had it growing for a couple of years before the drought about 8 years ago. It has huge heads. If I download my camera, I have some photos of it.

Thank you ladies! Tx_ag, I thought Lily of the Valley grew in the shade quite easily. I'm planning to use it under trees as part of a ground cover. I've heard it can also get a little invasive, but isn't that what a ground cover is supposed to do? LOL

Mara, like all other flowers that grow wild, they're nothing more than a weed out of place, or someting like that. Anyway, here's what burpee has to say....

Here is a link that might be useful: wildflower or not?

Do..NOT..grow...Queen Anne's Lace! Just ask me how I know, lol! I brought some from Oregon here to Texas years ago against my Mother's advice, to this day I'm still trying to remove it from flower beds, lawns, etc. In other words, Mother's know best!

Ogrose, I really don't want to plant it in different areas, just want it to show up *sporadiccally* here and there. Don't have a lawn(had it all remeoved!)so that's one less thing to worry about. ;o)

Queen ann's lace is Daucus carota, or the one that is most known here as Queen Ann's lace. The one with the cute velvety black spot. USDA has rated it as a noxious weed. Queen Ann's lace is also used to tag Ammi majus, a different plant and Anthiriscus sylvestis. That is the thing about using common names. I would suggest that you use Ammi majus and not Daucus carota. Burpie is no longer selling a noxious weed. That is nice of them.

My place is very dry and I don't water so things struggle more here than other places. It was a wet winter so I got the Mediterranean plants germinating. Lilly of the vally would not live in my yard. Are you in North Texas? Good luck with it. I have never seen it growing down in any garden in the Austin area and I have not seen it in a nursery.

I love Queen Ann's Lace and wish it was invasive for me.
I tried growing it with a little success, but my yard is probably too shady.
I should have tried some this year since we had our trees trimmed in the fall and now get more sun.

I, too, would really discourage you from planting Queen Anne's lace because it rarely is not invasive, and is a very large plant that may not work well in many gardens. I agree that Ammi Majus (sometimes called Bishop's Flower) would be a wonderful substitute. Unfortunately I no longer have the Ammi, since it did not self-sow freely for me and I failed to harvest seed, but I plan to again purchase seed this coming fall. My seed came from Wildseed farms in Fredericksberg. http://s241.photobucket.com/albums/ff233/jardineratx/Garden%202012/

Molly

patty cakes, I envy your getting rid of the grass, would love to do the same thing, but DH just won't hear of it; I wonder what it is about men and their grass, lol!

Some of the rest of us who aren't men love grass as well, ogrose................LOL>

Ammi majus is easily controlled. The other is not. If you want it coming up "here and there", sporadically is not what you will get. You will get "here, there, everywhere", Forever. Ammi Majus will not be a life long commitment of battling. Why chance it. I am in the Austin area, I could save some seed for you.

:D Funny. I think I have A. majus and it pops here, there, yonder and everywhere. I guess it's really happy growing in caliche soil. The worst trait for me is its seeds: it produces zillions of them and they stuck on your clothes, pet's fur and on your hairy legs. I still like it, though, because it looks good when it blooms and my garden is full of invasives anyway.

Omar

Omar, I think you might have Queen Ann's lace, Daucus carota. In Texas, especially in calicheville, it does not grow like it does up north.It does not get the huge umbel with the dot. Maybe because it is forced into bloom early because of our heat that makes it act like an annual. Other places it blooms on it's second year. Here it grows quickly, just enough to make seed.

Ammi majus seeds are not sticky and do not catch on everything. I say "think"yours is QAL because I am not 100% sure. I have had people look at that plant in my yard that look like Queen anne's lace and call it Bishop weed, Mock bishop'sweed, Prairee bishop, lace flower, Queen ann's lace, and lots of people would call it Hemlock and beggar's lice. All of these are different plants that look like Queen Ann's lace.

OK, This is what I have found out by googling around and NOT working like I should be.

1) Queen Ann has hairy legs and sticky seeds. Look at the stem and see if it has hairs. If you plan on eating the carrot like root your life depends on the hairy legs because its look alike,the highly poisonous Water Hemlock of Socrates' fame, has smooth stems that are mottled with purple. It might need to be a developed plant to get the hairs. I checked on the tiny plants that I have left and they are roughish on the stems but no developed hairs but my plants are only a couple of inches high because I am a weeding maniac.

2) Queen ann's lace seed is used as a morning after contraceptive.

3) queen ann's lace leaves look like hemlock leaves.

4)Ammi majus leaves are straight clusters at the joints like dill and the QAL has a compound lobed arrow shaped leaf. Bishop and mock bishop ( a native) has needle shaped leaves.

5) Beggar's Lice brings up a totally different plant when googled so maybe that is just a local name for it.

I am still confused by the different way that Queen ann's lace grows here. I am not completely sold on this id of the plant that I pull out by the arm loads. I think a worker brought in in on the truck tires or me with moving plants from my old house because it was not out here before we built and it is spreading from the foundation outwards.

This brings another reason why one should choose Ammi majus over Queen ann's lace, because QAL won't give you here in Austin, the classic large umbel structure that people get further north. Now, Ammi majus has naturalized in some areas of East Texas but is not considered invasive like QAL. Give it time and maybe things will change. It took a real wet winter for it to push up 3 plants in my yard after years of absence. I guess the seed does last.

Mara, i've taken what you're saying to heart and won't be planting QAL, but will plant it's 'look-alike'. The idea of *wearing* it is not something I care to experience, and bringing it into the house to join the dog/cat hairs I can do without.

Thank you so much for stearing me in the right direction re:QAL. I didn't realize there was an actual plant so similar in it's flower. ;o)

Interesting...I'll take pictures and will post them over the weekend. The seeds are sticky as heck but it definetly doesn't bear big umbellas. They also go away with the heat. We'll see...

Omar

I have a native yellow look alike (or a look kinda-alike) that I lost the name for, that I got from the Lady bird Johnston wildflower sale. It is a beauty also. and also going to seed. I so hope it naturalizes. Like I said before (countless times on this forum) I don't water so I only get the thrivers. My yard is a big field and a woods. I want the wild stuff.

Here I found the name of the yellow Texas native "look-kinda-alike", and it is a gorgeous plant. DRum roll.... Texas Prairie Parsley AKA Polytaenia texana. I do like this plant. I am keeping my eye on the seeds And I will be cultivating it this fall. It is only native in a very few counties north of Austin. It grew in some very alkaline heavy clay that I have. Next I will try it in the caliche based soil.

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Prairie Parsley

Omar, will be anticipating your pics!

Mara, the head of the flower looks sort of like a Hydrangea~~no?? QAL looks so much lighter and air-ier...lacey, like the name. Just not as pretty as the QAL, but I don't want to set myself up for problems by having an 'infestation' of the stuff if I were to palnt it. Wouldn't you think the Austin heat would keep it somewhat under control? Just a thought. ;o)

The QAL just does not put on the show that it does in other places down here.. It does not cut down the numbers. It just reduces the size and quality of the plants. It makes it small and rangy and very prolific.I googled up the images for queen an lace and there was a image of some in Dallas and one can see the difference between the ones that grew in cooler areas and those in Texas.

Ok. Here are the pictures of whatever I have (Mara, stop looking for more similar plants. They all look alike ;D). I was hard to find blooms of it for most of them are fading away because of the heat.

Here you can see how tiny the blooms are:
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A closeup of the branches shows no hairs
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I don't know if you can see the leaves and its disposition
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Whatever it is, it's very invasive but it looks good around other plants. Its seeds are very, very annoying but all the plants die with the heat of summer.

Omar

hmmmmmm I don't know if that *is* QAL Omar. I'm sure we'll find out. ;o)

Lol! I know. That's why I thought it was Ammi Majus...

Omar

Walking out the front door yesterday, I noticed I have 3 small 'plants' w/flowerheads in my front bed that sure look like QAL. I'll be giving them 'closer inspection' today.

Maybe i've been talking about it so much i've 'willed' them into the yard. ;o)

Mara,

Do you think the yellow on you have might be this instead?

Polytaenia nuttallis

I've gotten this one from LBJ before but never seen the Texas endemic. This one is probably better for me as it's native all over the plains but I'd like to see that other one as well.

Thanks!

Teri

Here is a link that might be useful: Polytaenia nuttallis

Lucas, I can't swear by anything. I got my ID by going through their data base and it seemed like a good match. I have some pictures of mine in seed only. My computer with photo library is inside my broken hard drive and somewhat inaccessible right now. It looks like thew flower heads were larger on mine but, the leaves, seeds, and flowers all look similar from what I can see from the photos. I did not see the P. nuttallis on the website when I looked. I found the P. texana and things were so similar that I stopped looking. Could be that your P. nuttallii is this one. I can't say, but hank you for alerting me of it. I just love living in a state of perennial head scratching and doubt. IDing Natives will do it to you. I have long lost the tag.

Omar, I didn't see the photos. Sorry

Mara, here they are again.

Here you can see the tiny flowers.

Here you can see that it doesn't have hairs on the stems.

I hope you can see the leaves

Omar

Yup that the plant that everyone has called all sorts of things and I don't know what it is. A little while before, I thought it might be a diminutive QAL but now I just don't know what it is and I sure would like to know. I am pulling it out by the armloads. I don't like it much. Maybe this is a problem for MR smarty pants at the LBJ Wildflower form.