When it comes to mystery plants, Connie Nelson is our go-to gal. Nine times out of ten, this smarty pants can rattle off the Latin name in the same breath. Unfortunately for GG reader Sharon, Connie is on vacation this week. Robyn and I are stumped, but we are confident that one of you knows the answer.

Hi gals,

Thanks, Sharon from Apple Valley

Can you correctly identify this mystery plant? You’ll help out a fellow gardener — and you might just win a mystery prize.

Wild, wacky, weird — We love reader submitted photos. Oh, yes, we do.

Dale Mattson came across this monster mushroom on his morning run through Hyland Park in Bloomington. All I can say is hat’s off to you and your photo! (You made my fungi look like button-caps.)

We know the gardening season is coming to a close, but we Greengirls would love to see your harvest — and your mystery finds. Upload your snap shots here: http://www.startribune.com/static/gardenphoto.htm. If we can’t get to them on the blog, they may find a happy life in our Home + Garden Fresh Pics Gallery.

Happy Gardening!

No, these are not dinner plates. These are “volunteers” I discovered this morning in my garden.

Greengirls has just received an S.O.S from a gardener in the north country. Al from Soudan has himself quite a head-scratcher. He writes:

A friend and I seem to be the only ones in the Lake Vermilion area to have this flower…and we have no idea what it is. We would love to know because people ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ and makes us feel guilty that we don’t label things in our gardens.

We are strong people here on the Iron Range — If it’s a weed, we can handle the truth.

Wow. We are flattered that such stoic people would ask for our help. I sent Al an email to make double dog-gone sure that a blog post about his mystery plant would not damage his Iron Range street cred.

Do it… My friend, who also has the mystery plant, had on display at Erickson’s Hardware Hank in downtown beautiful Tower. No one knew or even came forward. Do what you will.

So what is the answer to this Iron Range riddle? If you are the first GG reader to correctly identify Al’s mystery plant, we’ll send you a mystery prize.

Good luck!

It’s the season of blooms — and the season of mutants. Greengirls readers have sent some very interesting photos of their garden variety mutations. We have no explanations for these abnormalities but perhaps some of you do.

Confused clematis, photo courtesy of Melissa C.

Purple… er… a… green cone flower, photo courtesy of Peter K.

Do you have a mutant in your midst? Send a photo our way jchismar@startribune.com.