Surprises in My Flower Bed

I like to think of myself as a fairly knowledgeable gardener.  Will I win awards?  Probably not but I do OK.  Sometimes I get the pleasure of finding unexpected flowers in my beds.  The last couple of years I've had what I thought was a weed turn out to be a False Indigo.  Pretty cool!

Growing right behind the False Indigo has been a vine with a pretty white flower.  It's gotten a little invasive and is taking over one of my Clematis vines.  Why fight nature?  I'm putting in a new bed so I figured I'd move my Clematis and let this flowering vine take over.  It was growing much faster than the Clematis and provided a nice barrier.

While at my mother-in-laws this weekend (she's a Master Gardener) I was sharing my plan.  My sister-in-law (who is REALLY into gardening and a pet lover) wanted to make sure she knew what this plant was and that it wouldn't be a danger to our two dogs.

Today she e-mailed me that she thought it was a vine that was poisonous to animals.  After checking out the photo I figured out it wasn't what she thought it was but decided to do some more searching.  

Being the diligent gardener that I am (that was tongue in cheek!) I decided to pick a section of the vine so that I could compare it to the pictures on the Internet.  Yeah, that's a good decision as long as you are certain it's not POISON IVY!

Imagine my surprise (and horror) when I discovered that the lovely flower I was holding looked suspiciously like the Poison Ivy pictured right on my screen.  Being the Doubting Thomas that I sometimes am, I had to take my laptop back to the garden and verify.  Yep, it does have leaves of three.  Yep, it does have a white flower that looks just like the picture.  How lovely!  I've included a picture above in case anyone out there wants to disprove my assumption that it's Poison Ivy.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Please!!!

Hmmmm, I think I'll be digging up the Poison Ivy and leaving the Clematis.  That sounds like a good job for the hubby, doesn't it?

Well, I better go shower.  I did wash my hands but am definitely starting to feel itchy.  Hopefully it's just my imagination kicking in but the Internet experts suggest a thorough showering and a dousing with alcohol.  I guess my computer is going to need one to!

I'll keep you apprised of the rash situation :)

Have you had any expected finds in your garden?

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