Over the years the garden here has evolved into what I suppose most gardeners would describe as a total mess: plants everywhere, no discernible design, and hardly any labels. I think labels, to address only the last of these problems, are pretty unattractive, though I do use them for bulbs, to prevent me–in theory–from slicing through them when planting yet another plant in a space I thought was empty.

Colchicum ‘Glory of Heemstede’ ….with label.

I noticed this aroid leaf in the rock garden yesterday; maybe it’s Arum korolkowii or A. byzantinum. Doesn’t have a label so it could be almost anything. I think it’s an aroid but it could be some horrendous weed.

Aroid leaf in front of a captive Daphne circassica (in the cage ….)

Almost every square inch of the garden is planted with bulbs, and as I was planting some things I got from the chapter plant sale (Rocky Mountain Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society) I dug up a handful of crocus that had no label, and had to be replanted. I decided to be a bit more cautious in my digging, got distracted by weeds (that stupid little violet that seeds everywhere), when all of a sudden I was staring at this thing about three inches tall, a foot away from me.

Pure serendipity. I’d forgotten all about this, too, but I found a label hidden under the soil; Biarum tenuifolium, an aroid.  It’s growing in a place that makes taking its picture very awkward, but I tried.