Plant ID Extravaganza!!

[Lynda LeCompte]

As mentioned in the master gardener help thread, I have posted a bunch of pics of some of the plants in my gardens, for help with identification. For those that may not have been following, I am not familiar with a most of these plants as I have come from a small English garden to this much larger garden in zone 9, S. Texas!

The pics are all thumbnailed here;

mentioned on the page, I know the elephant ear plant, but could do with some words on that one. It was perfectly healthy last week, but that was before a couple of frosty mornings AND having had some of its roots pulled as they had wriggled into our septic line and was causing a blockage :-/ I gather it makes a good house plant so was thinking about potting some of the healthy parts to get it out of the way of the septic line.

There is also a healthy shrimp flower plant there that has gotten very leggy. I think I'll lop that back when it has finished flowering.

Pic #33 is ginger... I know that much, but need to find out what type it is and what to do with the gobs of this plant that I have domineering an area.

There's a berry plant (#32) that's spread all over one of my veggie patches. Is it blackberry? Whatever it is, I have to get rid of it, it's taking over!

Things are getting better as my hubby has just found his "Neil Sperry's Complete Guide to Texas Gardening" book (second edition) that was in the depths of moving boxes. Wow - what a great book! Now I'm going to be torn between going outside and making the most of another beautiful day or getting my nose stuck into the book... maybe I'll just take the book outside with me...

I really do appreciate all and any help. Maybe if someone spots something they would like a cutting of, something can be arranged. Let me know :-)

Have fun!

[madgardener]

as foundation plantings here in the states.............. I think I identified Yew as well from some needles that were showing in another picture. (if Yew is planted too closely to your house, it will crack and heave the foundation. You should see what it did to my mother's two foot thick cement front porch slab..................)

number 10 are the berries from varigated Lirope. Hardier where you are in zone 9 Texas, as apposed to here in zone 7, Tennessee.... hang on there is more........ photo 24 is Bronze ajuga a great ground cover, and it will produce a spike with sky blue flowers when it's cooler......(not sure when your season for those would be as you're nine. Here Bronze ajuga blooms in later springtime)

number 29 is blue common violet. I love common violets and occaisonally my garden friends take pity on me and send me clumps of them as they're very happy reseeders. Now if I could only locate some blue and white ones, the elusive yellow one and the dark royal purple one to plug into my patch I've gotten started over near the fence on the west side yard.

number 35 is Aucuba japonica or Gold dust plant.

I think another picture is Papyrus.......(the one that looks like a fan?) but it could be Chinese fan palm. You need to implore the assistance of the local expert, Victoria. She's in Texas and probably knows every one of these plants by visual.

yes, the frost nipped the leaves of the elephant ear. Are these leaves HUGE? Or are they of medium size? Elephant ear are enormous. With your zone 9 they'd be at least three foot across and as long if not longer. Even here when grown in the ground for spring and summer, they attain enormous proportions. There's a place in Nashville where the people planted elephant ears in a ditch that has a sheltered micro-climate and they pile up leaves to protect them even more and these things have multiplied and spread all along the ditch or run off and are visible from the road above them. It's incredible to see........especially when you take into consideration that they're not hardy in zone 6 during winter.

To think that shrimp plants here are just house plants.................

either blackberry or raspberry. that I know for sure. When you dig it up, don't leave a root of it.........

good idea. I often times drag out a book with me to try and identify things here. Particularly my Smokie Mountain wild flowers book or Eastern Wildflowers book. I don't have any in my own woods but am always coming across something somewhere else.

I hope my meager attempts were some help..........

[Pam - gardengal]

Lynda, you don't have the pics numbered (and I only count 33 total), so reading from left to right and down the page, here are my best guesses. BTW - detail photos of leaves with flowers or fruit, if any, are somewhat easier to ID than just a view of the plant as a whole.

1. Colocasia, elephant ears. What you are seeing is cold damage
2. Nandina domestica, Heavenly bamboo
3. conifer of some sort - as best as I can tell from the pic, most likely a Thuja
4. Polystichum munitum, sword fern
5. Rhododendron in too much sun
6. Liriope
7. Cyrtomium falcatum, Japanese holly fern
8. Liriope, again
9. Adiantum, maidenhair fern
10. Fatsia japonica, Japanese aralia
11. Rose obviously, but it will take a rosarian to ID specifc cultivar
12. Euphorbia pulcherrima, Poinsettia
13. variegated Vinca major
14. Asparagus fern
15. Ajuga reptans, bugle weed
16. Viola odorata, wood violet
17. Rubus of some form (yes, a nasty noxious weed - persistance is required for successful removal)
18. Hedychium, hardy ginger - impossible to tell which from the photo
19. looks like a laurel, probably some form of Prunus laurocerasus
20. Acuba japonica, Japanese laurel

pam - gardengal

[Pam - gardengal]

Nandina domestica is not in anyway related to bamboo other than by foliar appearance. It is a member of the Berberidaceae or the barberry family. It tends to be somewhat overused because of its hardiness and adapatability to a wide range of conditions.

pam - gardengal

[animaux]

Your first page shows up as photo number one on my web browser, so I will number them the way I see them.

1. Cherry Laurel
2. Elephant ears (caladium which is hardy in our part of Texas)

6-7 Maybe Thuga?

1. sword fern

10 .porcelain berry

1. shrimp plant
2. holly fern
3. liriope
4. Argeratum 'Gregg's blue mist' native
5. maidenhair fern
6. variegated vinca major
7. ajuga
8. papyrus
9. mexican petunia
10. strawberries

I gave many common names, but they are known by their common name, easily. There are other things which I cannot tell. Some of the shrubs may be viburnums.

Victoria

[MLEBLANCA]

I agree with Pam's ID on all of these and would like to add

24 and 28 are Cyperus alternifolius, common name is Umbrella Plant It is a sedge, not Papyrus, but related to it. Liked by flower arrangers, it can be pesty and spread in damp, wet ground. Wil grow in ponds.

Emilie NorCal

[David Hill]

Starting from the bottom(IT would have been a lot easier if you had numbered them) Don't know, then above that Spotted laurel missing next row then Viola oderata and Cyperus (Umbrella Plant) miss next row Ajuga and another Cyperus Vinca major variegata and Asparagus plumosa Do I need to say rose and don't know Fern(Asplenium?) and fatsia japonica

think that's enough for now.

[animaux]

Thanks, Emilie. Correction noted.

[Lynda LeCompte]

Wow - thanks for all the responses. That's a GREAT help. I had been sat in the garden with my newly found Neil Sperry book before I started any physical gardening today and had identified a few plants, to come back later and read this thread to find that I was correct with the IDs I did make - including my determination that the ajuga was the bronze variety (it looked purple to me!). So, I am learning.

Apologies for the confusion by the lack of a proper numbering system... I use a simple script to generate my thumbnail pages which saves me from having to hardcode the image filenames. When I referenced the pics in my original post, I was referring to the numbers in the filenames and ignorantly thought everyone would realise that. Sorry - my bad :-/

Anyway, I am really pleased with the responses and will look at again tomorrow after a good nights sleep. /yawns... I hope to get these plant names engraved in my mind... my memory isn't what it should be.

Thanks again, kind ppls.

-- Lynda

[Elizabeth]

1. looks so familiar, it's killing me that I can't name it....

2.Colocasia, Taro

1. Nanadina
2. Nandina
3. Juniper
4. Juniper
5. Wood fern
7. Mondo grass
8. Azalea
9. Nandina
11. Justicia, Shrimp plant
12. Holly fern
13. Liriope

16.Ageratum

1. Adiantum, Maidenhair fern
2. Fatsia
3. Rose
5. Vinca major
6. Aspargus plumosa
7. Ajuga reptans
8. Cyperus
9. Salvia... can't recall the species...
10. Euonymus
11. Violet
12. Cyperus
13. Rubus
14. Ginger
15. Raphiolepis, Indian Hawthorn
16. Aucuba
17. Cuphea

[Cereoid-UR12-]

Have not had the time to go over every picture but the last one is definitely Russelia equisetiformis not a Cuphea.

[Lynda LeCompte]

Okay... first off, another big thank you to everyone who responded. It was interesting to see the verifications and debate about some of the species.

The ones that I am still not sure about are as follows (and I've thrown a few more in as well...);

is a close up of that 'dead at the bottom' shrub that borders my rear patio and is in need of pruning. I had an id as a cherry laurel, but there are no berries on this shrub. We established it's not a mtn. laurel. I think Yaupon Holly got mentioned somewhere, where only the females get berries. Is this male yaupon?

This is a new one;

penny is there cus I've always wanted to do that ;-)

One that didn't get id'd in the last round;

new one; from the last round that I don't think was id'd correctly. We had offerings of Mexican Petunia, but the leaves are the wrong shape. The other suggestion was Salvia. I'm thinking there would be a strong aroma if it was salvia? There is no obvious aroma from the leaves, but with my ignorance that doesn't mean anything!! this one has me confused; had ids as Liriope, Porcelain Berry and Mondo grass. Looking at my books and pics on the web, I don't believe it is any of these - feel free to correct me...

Based on your identifications and for the more elusive ones, comparisons to other pictures, I believe the following are certainties (using filenames as Id); From this webpage;

- Elephant ears To answer madgardener's question; the biggest leaves are about two foot in length. There is lots of new growth at the base and I gather from a neighbour that it's a bit of a pest in these parts. #4 & #11 - Nandina domesticus (Heavenly bamboo) #6 & #7 - Juniper #8 - Sword fern #9 - Rhododendron - this got interesting when I realised that laurel, azalea and rhododendron are all part of the same family... still learning! #11 - Azalea... I guess I need to distinguish the differences... #14 - Shrimp plant #15 - Japanese Holly Fern #16 - Liriope #17 - Argeratum "Gregg's Blue Mist" (Thanks Victoria :-) #18 - Maidenhair Fern #19 - Fatsia Japonica #20 - Rose - we all knew that, but not sure of variety - certainly not a typical English type rose... #21 - Poinsettia - wow - I thought it looked familiar, but it isn't doing the whole red leaf thing so wasn't obvious to me. #22 - Vinca major #23 - Asparagus fern #24 - Bronze ajuga #26 & #30 - Cyperus #28 - Euonymus (burning bush) #29 - Common violet #30 - Rubus - ouch :-/ #33 - Hardy ginger #34 - Indian Hawthorn - I have masses of this #35 - Aucuba Japonica a.k.a. Japanese Laurel #36 - Russelia Equisetiformis a.k.a. firecracker plant - thank you Cereoid- UR12-:-) I particularly like this pretty little thing. Think I will propagate this one...

Phew - I think that will do for now. Hope this isn't too much of a headache! It's probably been entertaining for my neighbours... seeing me dash outside every now and again, fondle my plants, maybe take a picture then run back inside again. lol!

-- Lynda

[David Hill]

This is a new one;

penny is there cus I've always wanted to do that ;-)

Asparagus Spendurii

One that didn't get id'd in the last round;

plant

Another new one;

of the Asparagus ferns

Another from the last round that I don't think was id'd correctly. We had offerings of Mexican Petunia, but the leaves are the wrong shape. The other suggestion was Salvia. I'm thinking there would be a strong aroma if it was salvia? There is no obvious aroma from the leaves, but with my ignorance that doesn't mean anything!!

And this one has me confused; had ids as Liriope, Porcelain Berry and Mondo grass. Looking at my books and pics on the web, I don't believe it is any of these - feel free to correct me...

[Babberney]

yes, it's yaupon

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[Elizabeth]

Oh! Right you are. Serious brain cramp on my part. Thanks for pointing out the error.

[Elizabeth]

005.. Ilex crenata - possibly 'Helleri' 003.Asparagus densiflorus 'Myers' 002 A. d. sprengeri 001..Hypoestes phyllostachya Polka Dot plant 004 is still kicking my butt...

As an aside, the Salvia I suggested, is a ground cover, to about 8" tall. No fragrance, deep blue, very small flowers. Can't for the life of me remember what it's specific name is, but I found it at a tiny, private nursery.... love it! I have a pic I can send you if you send me your email...or you can see a pic on my webshots page... look in 'More Garden Blooms' and scroll to Salvia 61103

[Lynda LeCompte]

Ahh yes - I see what you mean. Should I be looking forward to these pretty blooms in the spring then? Some of this is kinda weeping over the edge of one the raised beds. Should look pretty in flower :-) Thank you.

-- Lynda

[Lynda LeCompte]

Hooray - thank you! Now I know what to do with the blasted things. There are about eight (too tired to go and count) dwarf yaupon holly bushes that have just got so top heavy they look silly. One of the bushes is absolutely dead I'm sure. However, the article I just read said that it responds well to hard pruning with prolific regrowth in the growing season, so I'm gonna get busy with my loppers tomorrow. Been keen to do this for days, but have been a bit unsure of the consequences...

-- Lynda

[animaux]

Dwarf yaupon only get to be about 3 feet tall and wide. Keep that in mind.

[Lynda LeCompte]

Will do. That would be fine if I can encourage good leaf coverage. The size of them doesn't really matter - it's the presentation because of where they are. When we're all sat on the patio in spring having a crawfish boil, it would be nice to be looking at greenery instead of a bunch of dead looking twiggy plants - lol!

-- Lynda