Awakening Perennials - Quiz I-IV.

Here's a little quiz from the perennial bed, I split it up into four parts so as not to flood the topic with piccies. :D I'll put up the names and the next two parts in two days' time and I do hope it's not very difficult, although, in retrospect, comparative ID would have been a better idea. Well, never mind...

Um, perhaps there are one or two things in here that are either not what they seem or are not really welcome sights in the garden. :wink:

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1. Aconitum arendsii, and I should have selected a better portrait, it was a bit tricky like this...

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2. Gaura lindheimeri, and I put it up in relief. I always worry about them if they survive the winter or not, and most probably it doesn't even lose its foliage here in England...

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3. It IS Acanthus mollis, well done, everyone! It's a great survivor, the one I can never believe my eyes when it emerges in spring again and again...

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4. Yeah, Hostas, definitely.

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5. Campanula medium, or at least I hope so. :hehe: I do have some Dispacuses around but they are in an infinitely better condition, without a single withered leaf. Their texture is much coarser, and their leaves are arranged into a tighter clump. I'll take a photo of them later in the season just to make sure I didn't get it all wrong.

 

Part II.

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6. Dicentra spectabilis. Yes, it's at least three weeks behind, isn't it?

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7. Brunnera 'Looking Glass', which is just as good as 'Jack Frost'.

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8. This little thing arrived into my garden as a giant Nepeta. I'm inclined to think it is rather a Nepeta subsessilis or a N. cataria. Anyway, it does grow to at least 3 feet. What do you think?

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9. Yeah, that's a nettle, Urtica dioica, and no mockery about it when it stings and my hand is sore and red and swollen for the rest of the day... Just as a reminder how important it is to know the enemy...

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10. Nepeta x faassenii, I use it to complement the mass of pinks and peaches in the rose bed.

 

Peaony
Shasta Daisy
Acanthus
hosta
teasel
dont know, maybe astilbe but very attractive new growth. Nice
Brunnera
nope
nettle
nepeta

- actually most are "dont knows".

 

1 no idea
2 Asters - something daisy like
3 Acanthus Mollis
4 Hosta
5 no idea

6 Dicentra (a bit late if so) or as HasBeen says Astilbe
7 Mock Nettle
8 no idea
9 yes, looks like nettles! Maybe Japanese Anemone...?
10 Lemon Balm

I'm good with perennials usually, but these either looks very delayed or like nothing I have in my borders (and I have a lot!)

 

1 Peony
2 Phlox
3 Acanthus
4
5 looks very familiar

6 Dicentra
7 Brunera Jack Frost
8
9 could be a nettle - but thats one of the few weeds that I don't have in the garden
10 Nepeta

Nice selection Agatha - thanks. But very difficult if you can't see them in your own garden.

 

Thanks very much all of you, guys, for taking the time and thinking over this little quiz! You did it exceptionally well! :thmb:

I should have thought about how far behind my poor little garden is in comparison to yours and give a forewarning, but this is what you get in zone 6... It didn't help either that it took some days to pop in and post the photos, too...

Sussexgardener: you were absolutely correct in thinking that they were very delayed, they certainly are...

PeterS: Thanks, it was my pleasure. BTW, that's what ID is about, isn't it, when something comes up that I should know, I really have to think twice and even google before saying that it's past me. That's why I was so grateful for your three ID-threads because it makes you think and wonder whether you are correct...

Has bean counter: whether 'most were dont knows' or not, you had a lot of correct answers and you had me rushing for the online dictionary because botanical Latin is one thing, English plant names is another... :D

So, without any more ado, I put up the names and the next round now. :thumb: Same warning applies: there's at least one tricky thing in it beside one or two little beauties... As before, it is going to be split into two parts.

 

Part III.

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11. Sorry, folks, this was the tricky one: it's a Thalictrum aquilegifolium, and as its name shows, it does look like an Aquilegia... But for its comparatively richer and more dense foliage.

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12. Hesperis matronalis, and a large clump of it, perhaps its bloom will be above a metre high. I expect it within a month.

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13. Echinacea purpurea. Every spring it looks dead and then it emerges and begins to grow at an unbelievable speed....

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14. Darmera peltata. Luckily, Bergenias do retain their foliage in winter and are already blooming... We're not in the North Pole - yet...:yho:

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15. Ligularia dentata. Their stems remain on the plant with their pretty clumps of seedpods and provide some winter interest along the pondside.

 

Part IV. :cutflwrs:

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16. Sedum 'Frosty Morn'. Here Sedums disappear for winter, and I do like their foliage among all the spring flowers... Purple varieties are just as attractive as this white variegated one and are ideal fillers in the perennial bed.

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17. That's a lady's mantle, Alchemilla mollis, or their first spring leaves at least. They're such a soft, delicate sight, aren't they? k-l

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18. This is a Paeonia lactiflora, and the varieties are at least two weeks behind the usual ones.

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19. This variegated little thing is an obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana. In spite of its variegation, it's an enthusiastic spreader, and it takes up all the space I provide it. :wink:

 

11. Aquilegia
12. Campanula
13. Rudbeckia (although the colour looks wrong...)
14. Bergenia (very, very late!)
15. Ligularia

16. Sedum
17. Alchemillia Mollis
18. Amended to add, perhaps a Peony, but I only have one so no expert...
19. No idea

 

Agatha - I really haven't a clue. I have had a look round my garden but in just the last week things have moved so much forward that very few things are only just emerging.

11 Aquilegia
12 Rings a very strong bell - but not sure. Could be Centranthus same leaf shape but is fractionally more yellow green. I also have Dianthus barbatus that looks very close.
14 Rhubarb springs to mind - perhaps it just because I am hungry. :D

16 Sedum
17 I am sure I recognise that but can't find a name
18 haven't a clue
19 again rings a strong bell even down to the variegation - but can't think.

 

I think there's a big difference between perennials where I live and where you live Agatha. Some of mine don't disappear at all - Sedum, Campanula, Lady's Mantle to name a few. Even in December/January there was new growth on all of them.

 

You can't imagine how lucky you are with this mild climate where you can keep the garden green in all seasons!

We have a more extreme climate, even transitional seasons seem to get shorter with every passing year. Two weeks of spring and then temperature races to the twenties with some frosty nights that damage magnolia flowers, peach blooms, even the fresh shoots of walnuts. By the middle of May it's usually around 30ish.

Perennial plants regularly stay dormant until the end of March, or even mid-April and they begin to grow like crazy. By the end of May there'll be no difference - only in the short blooming periods because of the heat...

We do have some evergreen (evergrey :p) perennials, however: lamb's ear, Cerastium, Lychnis coronaria, Bergenia, sometimes the biennial Salvias and Hesperis, even some of the evergreen ferns last through the winter. Everything else die down to the ground except for the perennial weeds. :o

 

I just wanted to give you an overall idea what is in here, this lot is from the time I put up the first two parts and didn't shoot another series of photos for the last nine plants.

And now, here are the names, inserted below the plants... And I'm sure, had they been in a more advanced stage, like yours undoubtedly are now, it would have been much-much easier! :flag:

 

Where are you located Agatha? Greenland or Iceland...or the Shetland Islands!

 

:lollol:
Seriously, when I looked up the USDA zones for all these three locations, I was horrified to realise that they belong to the similar zone 6... My garden is in the middle of Europe, located at the bottom of a cold valley along the river Danube... And its climate is cold (freezing) continental... :p