Plant id help please.

We have been given a few pots over winter...I've left them to their own devices to see what was in them first...here are two


1st





2nd





Can you identify them for us?

Many thanks.

Steve...

 

Not sure, but the first one looks like it could do with being divided! Perhaps some of lily? Those roots look tuberous (waffling now, so I'll stop!).

 

Thanks Aaron, we are thinking the second is an Acer...but will wait to see what everyone thinks first.

Steve...

 

i would hazard a guess at agapanthus and acer palmatum - one of the red purporeum?

loopy

 

Write me down as an imbecile, but I seriously think those green spikes look just like the emerging leaves of a Hosta - and perhaps of a variegated one.... And your location can be an excuse for the delayed appearance... There's one clump in front of the house in a pot and is in a similar condition. Anyway, you'll find it out in a week or so...

Here's a link on Hostas with a convincing pic:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/m1241.html

The second one is easy enough, that's a Japanese maple. At this stage you cannot tell what colour their leaves are going to be like, perhaps in summer it'll be a bit easier to identify the whole plant. Its coral bark and the centre of the leaves suggest that it's some green-leaved variety. I have one that looks just like yours, that leafs out reddish then turn green within a month...

 

I'd go along with Agatha. Second is definitely Acer palmatum and I think the first is probably a Hosta of some sort. I've just had a look at the emeging shoots on one I have in a pot and it looks very similar.

To keep the slugs off what the consider a tasty delicacy, I put a thin band of car grease, about an inch wide, around the rim of the pot, just below the top. It's cheap and effective, but just remember it's there, if you go to pick the pot up!:dh:

Chris

 

Well I did say it was a lily...and hostas are also known as Plantain Lilies. So I was right, sort of.

Skulks off embarassed to look at the mass of merging hostas I have in the garden...

 

Easy mistake Aaron. I wouldn't have been if I hadn't just checked the pot to see if it needs more grese - it does.

Chris

 

Oh, come on, Aaron, there's nothing wrong with that, is there? Do cheer up!:flag: I'll try to persuade Chris to join us in the amazingly mad rally of plant ID! k-l Let's give him a chance as well to scatch his head! :D

 

Hi, Chris, in some days time there's going to be another ID-round (the moment I get a camera in my hand in the Ice Pit :hehe which is fun and at the same time makes you google like mad for the answers, would you like to join us? Please, please, it's going to be a comparative ID round, that is, if I can find enough plants to compare with another.:p

The guys did it exceptionally well last time and I would be grateful if you could find the time to get in the ring with us! :D

 

Of course I'll join in but I know I'll show up my ingnorance. I have a confession: My wife says I'm like Manuel from Fawlty Towers, "I do gardening very well, I learn it from a book". Help!:flag:

Chris

 

Wow, there's one more of us, yeah! :gnthb:

Fawlty Towers: :yho:Anyhow, have no fear, you cannot perform any worse than I do, although I started learning everything about gardening on the Internet and then went to school to remedy this, I still seem incapable of recognising a tricky perennial from a picture, even though I did the respective practice exam with flying colours... That's what the difference is between a plant in front of your eyes and a plant on your screen... Both knowledge is worth improving, i think.

 

Honestly, I'm amazed I've achieved as much as I have. When I first applied to do Chelsea, I thought, naively, that anyone could get in. It wasn't until much later that I realised that it was only because of all the research I'd done, plus not a little luck, that I'd had my first design accepted.

I still feel that I'm really only a novice, especially when I see all the wonderfully comprehensive answers that are posted on this forum, I feel quite humbled. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.:thumb:
Chris