CandyAndCyanide
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Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:30 am
Location: Pennsylvania

Help! New house, don't know what plants they had!

So we moved here in the beginning of November, and at that time the last thing on my mind was the garden!! Now that its getting warmer stuff is starting to grow and gardening has always been something Ive wanted to do, but Ive never had a place to do it untill now, and some plants I know, others I have an idea of what they are, and some I'm completely clueless about!! Any help would be appreciated, if you need a better picture of one let me know and Ill go get one when I can!

First one, not sure what it is, my over enthusiastic 18 month old was helping me pull weeds and ripped some of the tips off!
[img]https://i41.tinypic.com/345lsar.jpg[/img]

This one started out as a bunch of shoots that were purple and green and now they look like this, I know Ive seen these before, but cant recall what they are!
[img]https://i39.tinypic.com/2uswwhh.jpg[/img]

This I thought was a flower at first, but then it started shooting up and I have no clue!! It started leaning over so the pictures arent the best, but its not rounded, its sort of flat, lol, I don't know how to describe them, theres also a smaller one behind it but I don't think you can see them too well.
[img]https://i44.tinypic.com/dzbx1.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i43.tinypic.com/2r4ldsp.jpg[/img]

Ornamental grass, anyone know the exact name for it? I already ripped a bunch out, she has a lot growing and its spreading like crazy, thinking of just getting rid of it all because I'm not too fond of it.
[img]https://i42.tinypic.com/17eniu.jpg[/img]

Sorry about these pictures, I know there mostly weeds and its might be hard to see the plant in question, this is located in a different area that I havent gotten to yet!
[img]https://i40.tinypic.com/2ypddfk.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i41.tinypic.com/2mgsaf.jpg[/img]

Theres quite a few of these sprouting up, and I think my son also ripped some out, I also got pictures of those, they look the same to me. Someone said they might be daffodils, but I'm not sure, if they are then theyre late bloomers because all the other daffodils in the neighborhood have begun blooming!!
[img]https://i43.tinypic.com/v65d35.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i43.tinypic.com/21cv43p.jpg[/img]

And these are the ones he ripped out
[img]https://i44.tinypic.com/fcodc0.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i42.tinypic.com/43rq8.jpg[/img]

Okay, and the last one for now!! Some kind of mint tea or something? Any help with the correct names would be appreciated!
[img]https://i40.tinypic.com/10dxhxk.jpg[/img]

Again any help would be awesome, I know Ive got quite a list going on here, she had tons of plants and I know the Tomatoes, Pansies, Hyacinth and a few others, but these I'm either clueless of unsure of what they are.

bullthistle
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he first is hosta, second looks like a lily possibly a daylily, third is a daffodil and the last looks like a mint, but don't know what kind. Rub it between your fingers and see what it smells like.

CandyAndCyanide
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Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:30 am
Location: Pennsylvania

Bullthistle - Thanks, I'm gonna go look up some of the ones you said and see if I can get more info!! The daffodils I wasn't sure about because like I said, every other daffodil in the neighborhood is already blooming, and my neighbor said the previous owner never planted any of them in here, but I do think thats what they look like and everyone else seems to think so too. The mint all I remember her saying is that she made tea from it, but she never said what kind, it does smell very good though, I dunno if I can quite describe how it smells, other then minty!! lol. Ill have to go sniff it in the morning and see if I can come up with a better description.

Marlingardenr - I'm not sure, I think it does, but Ill have to go out and double check in the morning. That is fenced off in its own little plot, someone said its a rose bush, but I really doubt it is, Ive never seen a rose bush like that! As for the grass, I do like it, but I don't, I think my main problem right now is that it wasnt cut down like you said, and now it just looks ugly. While I was out today I did pull out some of the dead stuff and it doesnt look too bad, so I'm probably gonna end up keeping some of it, but theres so much of it! I'm thinking of putting some of it in decorative pots and putting them back to keep it contained.

The neighbors said that she kept it really nice and spent a lot of time out working in it, but last year she just kinda let it go because they knew they wouldnt be here much longer, and they also took a lot of the plants with them. So I'm just letting most of whats there grow, and in the spots that are empty I'm just growing a few vegetables this year, figure Ill keep it simple till I have a definite plan in mind then go all out. But before I do too much I want to know what everything is because some of it I might move and Id like to do some research about each plant before I mess with it too much, and Id like to make sure they are all getting what they need to grow nicely.

cynthia_h
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Location: El Cerrito, CA

My suggestion: About May or maybe earlier, if everything has grown out and "declared itself," hire a gardener from an independent nursery to come out and walk around your yard with you and identify plants and tell you what kind of care they need. Depending on how large your lot is, this may take 1 to 2 hours at most.

Stick to this person like a bad burr. Take copious notes. Ask things like

--Is this invasive? Slow-growing?
--Do I need to lift the bulbs, or will they naturalize? (in the case of bulb-type plants)
--How much water does it need? (in terms of how often and how deeply to water it)
--Acid loving? Alkaline loving? or Neutral-soil loving?
--Toxic to children, dogs, cats? (if any of these apply to you)
--Does it attract pollinators or not?

etc.

In the meantime, don't pull up anything unless you know for sure that it's a weed.

Many "gardeners" don't know wisteria from a walnut seedling; they just do the mowing/raking thing. That's why I strongly recommend a staffer at an independent nursery--they're usually quite knowledgeable about local plants, and have a strong interest in gardening for themselves. If no one who works at the nursery is available, they would be a resource to ask for someone who *does* actually know plants and their care.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

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rainbowgardener
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The other possibility would be to see if you can get back in touch with the previous owners. Having invested all those hours and dollars in the garden, I expect they would be very pleased to know that someone is interested in maintaining it. They would likely be glad to walk around with you and explain what is planted where and how to care for it. They might even be able to tell you some stories about your garden that no one else would know! :)

CandyAndCyanide
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Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:30 am
Location: Pennsylvania

I already tried getting ahold of them but I cant. They didnt leave an address and the cell number I had is no longer in service. I kind of think they might have done that on purpose, we only paid 2000 for it [its a trailer, yuck], but it has problems. A lot of which they didnt tell us about and werent obvious at first glance because they covered them up with a quick fix. I'm not pissed about it and it doesnt really bother us anyways because our plan was to completely gut the thing and re-do it and then re-sell it down the road after were done and move into something nicer. But the one neighbor was pretty good friends with her so she said shed try to help me out and see if she can tell me what some of it is and maybe try to get ahold of the people who used to live here and just ask for names of some of the plants.

Ive already started recruiting a few people I know to come over and help me out and see if they recognize anything, a few people have suggested just taking everything out and completely starting from scratch, but I don't want to do that!! Some of the stuff thats growing I really like, I wish they would have let the rose bushes here, but thats one of the things they took with, so this year I'm just putting some tomatoes and peppers there, next year Ill do more with it.

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rainbowgardener
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Hey, for 2 grand you got to expect some problems. Still sounds like a good deal. Don't rip things out until you know what you have. Go through this year just finding out what is there and how to care for it and what it will all look like through the seasons. Then you can start editing, taking out what you don't like and making it more yours. But all those hours and dollars invested in the yard are a great gift to you. No point in wasting it!

CandyAndCyanide
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Location: Pennsylvania

Yeah, we figured for the price we werent going to argue, I mean its a place to live and that what matters, right? But last September we had all that rain and flooding around here, and they told us that they didnt have any problems with it, but after living in here for a few weeks we got more heavy rain, and the roof started leaking, so we took down the stuff they had up there, and apparently it did leak, they just slapped some new stuff over it to hide it without letting it dry out or actually really trying to repair it!! And some of the windows started leaking too, and they did the same thing there, just replaced the old paneling that got wet with new stuff. I could go on all day about the other issues, but I'm just gonna stop there.

I was planning on going outside today to clear some more dead stuff out and clean up the trash the keeps ending up in our yard, but just my luck, its cold and rainy. :( But I guess thats just a reason for me to stay inside with the kids and read some more book about plants to them, lol.

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mtmickey
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Location: Ronan, MT

I believe the grass is ribbon grass, which will grow just about anywhere. If it has good soil, it will really spread, but in clay doesn't spread so much. I never cut mine, just pull out the dead in Spring and it looks really nice.

Kats Eye
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Location: Missouri zone 6a

first is a yuka that didnt like the lawn mower! just water it and it will come back.

purpleinopp
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Location: Opp, AL zone 8B

Heythere! First of all, good luck with the house & hope the rains stop where you are soon!

First one looks like some kind of bulb.
2 - definitely Hosta
3 & 4 looks like daylily (Hemerocallis)
5 - I don't like ornamental grasses, even if considered 'desired plants and not weeds.' They always have all of that dead stuff around the base. That could be cleaned up, but that's not what I enjoy doing, so I don't add those to the yard.
6/7 - berry vines are extremely weedy unless they are one of the store-bought cultivars. You can't have a well-behaved little patch, they creep into new areas, and every year a new crop of seeds will be deposited all around the area (by wind, birds, other critters) assuming you don't pick every berry, usually hard to do without getting too scratched up. You may not want to keep that around unless it's on a fence where mowing will keep it from spreading to other areas.
8/9 - some kind of bulb.
Ripped out bulbs - just put 'em back and they'll be fine.
Last one - looks minty as said. There are a LOT of different mint plants.



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