Everything's Coming Up Roses

 Well, maybe not roses, but definitely some beautiful flowering shrubs and trees.  I have no idea what most of these are, but I'm certainly enjoying the explosion of color in the yard. 

 

One that I do recognize - and one of my favorite flowers - is lilac.  We have both the purple and white varieties.  If there is another name for the white, someone please let me know.  There is a bouquet of both shades on my kitchen table and the house is filled with their wonderful fragrance.  There are also crocus (or are they daffodils?) and a huge patch of what I believe to be hydrangeas - we'll know for sure when they bloom.  You're probably catching on by now that I'm not a florist or horticulturist.  There are several other plants coming up that I have no clue about, so we'll have continuing surprises all summer.  

But, along with the beautiful blooms, you know, just stuck in among the zinnias, is this thing:  Audrey II???   

The pod is at the top of a three foot woody stalk.  The leaves bear a striking resemblance to a certain illegal plant, but the stalk and blooms are different.   My best guess is that it's some sort of thistle that shouldn't be in the flower bed, but it has obviously been there for several years, so I'm going to let it bloom before I decide for sure.  Anyone have a clue?  If I'm about to get busted, someone give me a warning.

 I was walkin' in the wholesale flower district that day and I passed by this place where this old Chinese man, he sometimes sells me weird and exotic cuttings, cause he knows, you see, that strange plants are my hobby. He didn't have anything unusal there that day, so I was just about to, you know, walk on by, when suddenly and without warning there was a total eclipse of the sun.  It got very dark and there was this strange sound like something from another world.  And when the light came back this weird plant was just sitting there, just, you konw, stuck in among the zinnias.  I coulda sworn it hadn't been there before, but the old Chinese man sold it to me anyways, for a dollar ninety-five. - Little Shop of Horrors