QUESTION: A flower blooms this time of year in lawns of many of the older homes in the Myers Park area of Charlotte. The leaves are grass-like and the flowers are six white petals in a star shape (about the size of a quarter) with a small yellow center. They have an oniony smell when you dig them up and the bulbs look like large wild onion. They must spread fairly easily as some lawns are almost covered with them in the spring. I have been able to dig some from places where they are doing a tear-down and transplanted to natural areas of my yard. What are they called and do they like sun or shade?ANSWER: When I moved to Charlotte from Fort Lauderdale in the late 1960s, this little flower was one of the first things to catch my eye at the end of that first cold winter.It seemed to appear magically in lawns, then disappear.Then, and for a long time afterward, people called it star-of-Bethlehem. Some people still do. But that name is given to another flower bulb named Ornithogalum umbellatum. In late spring, it bears white flowers with loosely spaced petals and yellow stamens that close about midday.Textbooks and catalogs call the charmer you and I love spring starflower (Ipheion uniflorum). It is a very reliable bloomer that shows up as white, lilac or light purple flowers with stamens that huddle down in the center. The foliage is bluish green. They will grow in sun or partial sun.I think you will find they spread nicely by seeds that develop and pop away as the flowers mature. A faster way is to dig, divide and replant the little clumps of bulbs that form underground. Left to grow, their foliage disappears as hot weather arrives, reemerging in the fall.Keep this in mind if you do much spraying for weed control in your lawn in the spring and autumn. And if you have them in the lawn and like this look, try not to mow for a few weeks after the blooms are gone to give the starflower foliage time to mature before the dormant season.I am glad you took the trouble to rescue these fine little plants that add much charm to lawns and gardens here.

QUESTION: I have nine Leyland cypress trees along the top of my property line that I am using like a fence. When I planted them, I didn't make a shrub bed around them. Now the grass in my yard is all around their base. I would like to put a shrub bed up there but do not want to kill the trees. The grass is up to the trunks. A friend suggested a grass killer but not to spray near the roots of the tree. How can I resolve this and get my shrub bed? Will I have to dig up those trees and replant them?ANSWER: Absolutely not. You have a much smaller problem than you think. First, a shrub bed is a good idea because it will make a more interesting sight than Leylands do on their own. It will add seasonal color and varied texture.Products are formulated to kill grass and grasslike weeds without affecting other plants. They will say this on the label. One of the best known is Ortho's Weed-B-Gon. These grass killers will not affect the trees, but still try to keep from spraying the foliage or bark.Another method, which does not require a herbicide, is to put black plastic temporarily over the area you wish to convert to the shrub bed. Without light and water, the grass will turn yellow and die in a few weeks. The plastic must be anchored well with something like bricks.Then you can put a tiller to the ground to prepare the shrub bed for planting. I do not recommend use of black plastic as mulch because it does not let water seep through and does nothing to improve the quality of soil, as organic mulches do.By MCTNews Service