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Home > Archive > UK gardening > June 2005 > Plant Identification
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Plant Identification
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| Lorraine_6865 2005-06-24, 6:25 pm |
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I have recently moved into a new house and inherited a rather large
garden which was over grown, I am about half way through the weeds and
managed to find several small trees, Large & small shrubs and some
plants.
Hanging baskets have been my limit until now so identifying them all is
proving quite difficult, I have purchased several gardening books &
magazines but they only seem to be helpful if you already know which
plant you are dealing with (which of course I don't) I have one which
is currently called "That nice pink shrub on the lefthand side" & "that
lovely purple one at the bottom of the garden"
Does anybody know of a site with plenty of photo's that I may find
useful, I need to know what they all are!
Any help will be most appreciated....
--
Lorraine_6865
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| In article <Lorraine_6865.1r5cvz@gardenbanter.co.uk>, Lorraine_6865
<Lorraine_6865.1r5cvz@gardenbanter.co.uk> writes
quote:
>
>I have recently moved into a new house and inherited a rather large
>garden which was over grown, I am about half way through the weeds and
>managed to find several small trees, Large & small shrubs and some
>plants.
>
>Hanging baskets have been my limit until now so identifying them all is
>proving quite difficult, I have purchased several gardening books &
>magazines but they only seem to be helpful if you already know which
>plant you are dealing with (which of course I don't) I have one which
>is currently called "That nice pink shrub on the lefthand side" & "that
>lovely purple one at the bottom of the garden"
>
>Does anybody know of a site with plenty of photo's that I may find
>useful, I need to know what they all are!
>
Look out for books by Martyn Rix and Roger Phillips - lots of good
photos, and they arrange things roughly in order of flowering, so if you
see something in there that you recognise as something in flower around
you at the time, then the other flowering bushes you are trying to
identify are likely to be in the same area of the book.
Another good way is to pay frequent visits to a garden centre - you can
see the plants live, and they all have labels. It'll give you a better
identification than you get from a photo.
Remember that plant classification is based on flowers - two things can
have similar leaves and not be in the least bit related, but if what you
are looking at has 5 petals and the picture in the book has 4, they are
very unlikely to be the same thing.
Finally, if you can post photos to a web site or to a newsgroup which
accepts photos (uk.rec.gardening does not - you need a newsgroup
beginning alt.binary or similar) then people on urg are more than happy
to try to identify things.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"
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| michael adams 2005-06-24, 11:25 pm |
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"Lorraine_6865" <Lorraine_6865.1r5cvz@gardenbanter.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Lorraine_6865.1r5cvz@gardenbanter.co.uk...
quote:
>
> I have recently moved into a new house and inherited a rather large
> garden which was over grown, I am about half way through the weeds and
> managed to find several small trees, Large & small shrubs and some
> plants.
>
> Hanging baskets have been my limit until now so identifying them all is
> proving quite difficult, I have purchased several gardening books &
> magazines but they only seem to be helpful if you already know which
> plant you are dealing with (which of course I don't) I have one which
> is currently called "That nice pink shrub on the lefthand side" & "that
> lovely purple one at the bottom of the garden"
>
> Does anybody know of a site with plenty of photo's that I may find
> useful, I need to know what they all are!
>
> Any help will be most appreciated....
>
>
> --
> Lorraine_6865
First of all don't panic. If they've survived this long on neglect
they're not going to all die on you, or take over the garden before
you've found out what they all are. If you've weeded around them
you've already done them a big favour by reducing competition.
If it's hot all plants will benefit from a soaking whatever they
are. If they've got thick shiny leaves they may be camelias
usually more rounded shapes, or rhodeodendrons if they have longer
leaves. There are any number of possibilities, but finding out
what they all are will be all part of the enjoyment.
The only real danger might be pruning stuff in the wrong way so
you lose next years flowers etc. So I'd suggest you first try and
identify any plants that you're tempted to cut back. Other
than that, by keeping your eyes open you should be pretty knowledgeble
by this time next year. The learning is part of the fun. Depending
on the fertility a sprinkling of growmore aound everything
come the Autumn probably wouldn't do any harm, either.
michael adams
....
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| Emrys Davies 2005-06-24, 11:25 pm |
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"Lorraine_6865" <Lorraine_6865.1r5cvz@gardenbanter.co.uk> wrote in
message news:Lorraine_6865.1r5cvz@gardenbanter.co.uk...
quote:
>
> I have recently moved into a new house and inherited a rather large
> garden which was over grown, I am about half way through the weeds and
> managed to find several small trees, Large & small shrubs and some
> plants.
>
> Hanging baskets have been my limit until now so identifying them all
is
quote:
> proving quite difficult, I have purchased several gardening books &
> magazines but they only seem to be helpful if you already know which
> plant you are dealing with (which of course I don't) I have one which
> is currently called "That nice pink shrub on the lefthand side" &
"that
quote:
> lovely purple one at the bottom of the garden"
>
> Does anybody know of a site with plenty of photo's that I may find
> useful, I need to know what they all are!
>
> Any help will be most appreciated....
>
>
> --
> Lorraine_6865
Is this the lovely purple shrub you refer to?
http://www.midwestlandscapeplants.o...m?speciesid=536
and is this the 'Nice pink shrub on the lefthand side'
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/988/
Regards,
Emrys Davies.
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| In article <3i3c0qFjefpgU1@individual.net>, michael adams
<mjadams28@onetel.com> writes
quote:
>The only real danger might be pruning stuff in the wrong way so
>you lose next years flowers etc. So I'd suggest you first try and
>identify any plants that you're tempted to cut back.
But if you really have to cut back, then just after flowering is a
reasonable rule of thumb.
If you prune at the wrong time, you won't kill the plant - you'll merely
lose next years flowers (and have to wait two years before you can
identify it ;-) )
The only caveat is - if you want to cut something back drastically, say
to less than half its original size, it's probably best to do it over
two years - cut half the branches right back this year, then (providing
the bush isn't sulking too much) cut the other half next year.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"
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| Chris Hogg 2005-06-25, 6:25 pm |
| On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 16:29:18 +0000, Lorraine_6865
<Lorraine_6865.1r5cvz@gardenbanter.co.uk> wrote:
quote:
>
>I have recently moved into a new house and inherited a rather large
>garden which was over grown, I am about half way through the weeds and
>managed to find several small trees, Large & small shrubs and some
>plants.
>
>Hanging baskets have been my limit until now so identifying them all is
>proving quite difficult, I have purchased several gardening books &
>magazines but they only seem to be helpful if you already know which
>plant you are dealing with (which of course I don't) I have one which
>is currently called "That nice pink shrub on the lefthand side" & "that
>lovely purple one at the bottom of the garden"
>
>Does anybody know of a site with plenty of photo's that I may find
>useful, I need to know what they all are!
>
>Any help will be most appreciated....
Look out for "The Royal Horticultural Society Gardeners' Encyclopedia
of Plants and Flowers" published by Dorling Kindersley (not to be
confused with the RHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, also by DK).
The former has lots of pictures and categorises garden plants by size,
flowering season and flower colour, so if you've got a tall shrub that
has yellow flowers in the spring, you can go to the relevant pages for
possibilities. The A-Z encyclo is an alphabetical list, so you need to
know what the plant is before you can look it up, as you say in your
post. The pictures are the same in both books.
Look for good second-hand copies on the Advanced Book Exchange
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry
and restrict your search to UK booksellers only.
--
Chris
E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net
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| JennyC 2005-06-26, 4:25 am |
|
"Lorraine_6865" <Lorraine_6865.1r5cvz@gardenbanter.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Lorraine_6865.1r5cvz@gardenbanter.co.uk...
quote:
>
> I have recently moved into a new house and inherited a rather large
> garden which was over grown, I am about half way through the weeds and
> managed to find several small trees, Large & small shrubs and some
> plants.
>
> Hanging baskets have been my limit until now so identifying them all is
> proving quite difficult, I have purchased several gardening books &
> magazines but they only seem to be helpful if you already know which
> plant you are dealing with (which of course I don't) I have one which
> is currently called "That nice pink shrub on the lefthand side" & "that
> lovely purple one at the bottom of the garden"
>
> Does anybody know of a site with plenty of photo's that I may find
> useful, I need to know what they all are!
>
> Any help will be most appreciated....
> Lorraine_6865
Tree ID (with photos):
http://home.sullivan.k12.il.us/teac...tree%20key.html
Shrub IG (bit technical):
http://www.reticule.co.uk/flora/content/SEARCH.ASP
And here's a site for looking up perennials-you put in colour, time of flowering
etc.......might be useful :~)
http://www.perennials.com/search.html
The book I find most useful is the "Gardeners Encyclopaedia of Plants and
Flowers"
It has things grouped by size, colour and time of flowering.
Whenever I get stuck, I leaf though it and usually find what's what :~))
HTH Jenny
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