my first garden!

[cath5716]

Hi

I have just moved into my first house and as such have my first garden.

The previous occupier planted lots of different types of grass and large plants. I have no idea what is what, is any one able to ID this plant.

I moved in shortly before christmas, at this time it looked like it was dead, it has now come back to life, and seems to be gaining life from the top down. It has a hollow stem, and the leaves have a purple edge to them.

Many thanks

[rainbowgardener]

I'm just bumping this, because you didn't get a response.

I don't know and your plant is very interesting.

Your pictures aren't great and for some reason they don't enlarge (usually when people post photos here, you can click on them and they open up and enlarge). Another picture from a little farther back to show the whole shape of the plant would be good and maybe a close up of leaves.

You just moved in in Dec, so you probably don't know, but you can get to know your neighbors by asking them if they know if in other seasons your plant has flowers and berries.

There are some honeysuckles that have hollow stems.

[applestar]

Good thing rainbowgardener did bump this thread because I didn't see it before.

I think your plant looks like Elderberry. If so, the dead looking stems will be tan in color and have pithy white core. Some of previous years growths will have died completely over the winter and will need to be cut off. In fact it's a good idea to cut them back shorter in spring.

The new shoots will develop umbels of white flowers at the top in late spring/early summer that will turn into tiny round black elderberries.

But I believe they need to cross pollinate so only if you have two different cultivars/plants. (Hmmm I wonder if this is true... I remember buying two different ones because of this description, but I now have single plants growing in remote corners of my yard and they all fruit.... Maybe bees bring the pollen to pollinate them.

[imafan26]

It helps to take a picture of the whole plant in the ground with a reference marker for size and then take pictures close up of the leaves, flowers, and fruit for future reference.

It is hard to id cut branches without a reference to the way they grow and what the whole plant looks like.

[rainbowgardener]

that's for future reference. It is hard to ID cut branches like that, but applestar did it!

[imafan26]

Hooray for Applestar

[!potatoes!]

not that I have any better ides, but that doesn't look like elder to me. hollow, yes, but green stems? not convinced.