identification and advice for newbie

Hi all!
This is my first post and attempt at gardening so bare with me. I moved to the UK from a mediterranean country so most plants here are foreign to me. At my new house I have a garden and I want to make it pretty for summer. I ordered some perennials and bedding plants online today. I am trying to clean and tidy the existing plants/weeds before the new flowers arrive. So far I have identified mint,thyme,lemon thyme,a bay tree,various rose bushes,and daffodils. The rest of the plants I have no idea what they are so if you could help me I would be extremely grateful. I have looked at photos of common weeds and cannot find exactly the same leaves as mine. Here they are:

• 1 and 2 (pictured together): I have do idea what they are but I have many.
• 3: some sort of grass grows from bulbs, it's everywhere.
• 4: no idea,I only have this one plant
• 5: these cover a corner of the garden and look pretty, are they weeds?
• 6: look like small pansies and grow in several spots, are they seeds from last year? will they grow into bigger flowers or shall I remove them?
• 7: doesn't look like weeds but I don't know what at is

Also I have a couple of questions:

• I have a wet mossy corner in my garden, do I plant there and treat it like the rest of the garden or should I be careful about what I plant?
• The soil in the garden I believe is "sandy", and well drained except for that one corner, is there a universal compost/plant food I can mix with the soil before I plant the new flowers that is suitable for all of them?

Thank you in advance for sharing your expertise with me

 

Hi Cyukkie! Welcome to the forum.#1 is aquilegia #2 poppy (?) #5 is aubretia #6 is a self seeded viola.
If your damp mossy corner is shady you can plant ferns, hostas, astilbe.
http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/right-plant/vid.101/

 

Seven is an Allium.

 

3 looks like Crocosmia

 

Hello cyukkiem and welcome to the forum

Are you sure? I thought oriental poppy as soon as I saw it, but I could be wrong of course.

#2 looks like something in my garden which I think is Feverfew.

 

1 might be an oriental poppy but not exactly sure, 2 Aquilegia, 5 aubrieta

your wet/moist corner is a nice opportunity to plant sth that prefers wet conditions, first check if it is just moist or really wet/boggy, also check if it is shady or how long it gets sun to find the right plants, also find out if it stays moist in summer still (just to give some examples for nice plants: rodgersia pinnata, primula candelabra, hakonechloa macra "Aureola"..)

sandy soil is usually well drained which gives a chance to plant sth that doesn't like wet soil in the winter (1)for instance alpine plants which are rather frozen in winter which equals dry conditions or 2)plants which grow in winter conditions which are more dry like cistus) -for some but not all of these you wouldn't even need to improve the soil.
Sorry, but can't give expert advice what to dig in..

 

Welcome Cyukkie!
Think I can help you with some of the plants you need IDs for:
No. 1 Looks like it could be Oriental Poppy (Papaver)
No. 2 Aquilegia
No. 3 Possibly Crocus
No. 6 Viola

If you have a wet mossy corner, that probably means it's a shady area which gets little sunlight. The good news is there are plenty of plants which will still grow well in those conditions.

 

The white flowered one looks like Allium paradoxum var. normale.

 

Oops got 1 and 2 swapped around.

 

Doesn't that have a bit of a reputation for being a little invasive?

 

Thank you guys soooo much. I did not expect answers so fast, this is a great community.
So I now know what they all are:
1: Oriental Poppy
2: Aquilegia
3: Crocus (?)
4: Allium paradoxum var. normale
5: Aubretia
6: Self seeded viola
7: Allium (of some sort)
The important thing is that I get to keep all of them

Also thank you for your suggestions. Thank you loveweeds for suggesting the hakonechloa macra,I like the idea of planting it in the corner that as it's quite big and it will cover the space nicely.

I have a last question about the crocus leaves (number 3). They do look exactly like crocus foliage (with the white stripe and all), but all the photos of crocuses I found have very short leaves. I read somewhere that leaves get much longer after the flower has died. Mine have not had any flowers yet so is it possible that they are not crocuses or that they will not flower this year?

Thank you once again.

 

Are you sure they haven't flowered yet? How long you been at the new house/garden? Crocuses are very early and will have finished flowering a few weeks ago. There's no sign of mine now They are one of the first of the common garden flowers to bloom, usually in late winter, but the flowers are fairly short lived.

 

I've been here since beginning of february and haven't seen any crocuses. I'm sure I would have noticed because I look at the garden almost every morning while I drink my coffee (waiting for the tulips to flower). Maybe they flowered under the snow in february? Maybe it's something else not crocuses?

 

As I suggested earlier, I think No. 3 is Crocosmia. Mine currently is about 10" high with flowering not expected for a couple of months yet.
The poppy is similar foliage to the Royal Wedding poppy I have, so hopefully you will have a nice plant when it flowers.

 

Allium paradoxum is the invasive version as it does not flower, only produces bulbs in the flower head. Var. normale is the one which flowers and is a bit better behaved. ALL Alliums have the potential to be invasive either by bulb or by seed.