Inherited garden - what's in it?

Hi all - Newbie, let me know if I'm posting inappropriately.

We bought a house in Port Credit, Ontario last October, and all sorts of lovely things have come up in the front garden (full sun). Being new to gardening, and the area, I just let everything come up and see what it looked like. There are a couple of large flowering plants in the front that seem to be taking over, and obscuring some of the others. I'd like to know what they are, and whether they fall in the weed category. I don't mind the look of either, don't really love them either. In the picture, its the white and yellow ones side by each in the front, the white is almost a pale pink, with lots of mini-blooms in a long cluster, about an inch long. The yellow is again mini-cluster of blooms, in a round, rather than long config. I have close ups of both, if anyone is interested. I've already cut them back by half.

Any thoughts or input welcome.

Regards,
Sara

Hi Sarah! The yellow-flowered plant looks like mustard - an annual weed, it pulls up very easily - but the pale pink/white one I'm not familiar with. The white daisy with the yellow centre, at the back, looks a lot like Ox-eye Daisy. It will seed itself everywhere if you don't cut the dead flowers off, and I've spent years trying to eradicate it from my garden, so watch out!

June

Thanks June - the mustard description works! I cross-ref'd with ontarioweeds.com, and its a good match. Further cutting back to ensue. Thanks also for the heads up on the daisies.

I've attached the close-up on the white/pink one..

I think the white/pink one is a Polygonum (common names include Bistort and Smartweed). There are a lot of Polygonum species, some are weeds, and some are garden flowers. Sorry, I don't know which one you have!

Hi Sara! Welcome to Dave's Garden!

The darker pink flower on the right looks like Sweet William to me and the very dark purple flowers on the left look like Bachleor's Button - I've got a dark one like that called "Black Ball".

I was going to say it looks like you've got a Shasta Daisy - but I don't know how to tell Shasta Daisy apart from an Ox-eye Daisy, so I'm not sure.

Joanne

The leaves of a Shasta Daisy are less feathery than the Ox-eye Daisy. I have both and I encourage both, but the Ox-eye certainly will seed itself everywhere. I haven't found the plants a problem to pull up though if they seed somewhere I don't want them. And with experience you'll be able to identify them when they are small. Also, the flowers are smaller on the Ox-eye than on a Shasta. I think the Shastas are actually part of the mum family.

I agree with June on the Smartweed - that's definitely a weed too, along with the mustard. Pull it before it sets seeds. The tall blue flowers in the back is a variety of Veronica, or Speedwell.

Sandy

This is what can happen with mustard.

Hi Sara and welcome to DG!

Your daisy looks like a Shasta Daisy so you'll probably want to keep it....Shasta's like Ann mentioned have less feathery leaves then an Ox-Eye and also the stems are thicker and less likely to fall over. The red and blue flowers at the front of the bed look like panisies and the dark flowered plant to the left of the daisy could be a 'Black Ball' Bachelors Button or it sort of looks like a 'Barlow Black' Columbine. Here's links so you can compare them:
Barlow Black http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/65132/
Black Ball http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/91127/

Hope this helps,
Steven