Mystery Plant

Hi

New member here- hoping you can help!

Does anyone know what this plant is and how best to prune it? It had small white flowers and then small red berries. The leaves are turning white, then red, and dropping off from the top down - I presume this is due to deciduousness rather than illness? The photo is from a while ago, i can take another/better one if it would help.

Thanks

Hi bookmonster, another pic might help, a bit closer in for detail, can't quite see enough. Are some of the leaves variegated or is that an effect of the light? 

Can't think of anything that goes white then red before dropping it's leaves but it may be another of those strange weather effects. I've had some very pale leaves on several shrubs.

I clicked on it twice to magnify it. I'm sure I know it but I'm having a senior moment and it's name escapes me. Isn't it evergreen? If it were deciduous I would have thought it would have lost it's leaves by now. Evergreens still lose leaves and grow new ones but bit by bit and not all at once. I hope it's not waterlogged after all the rain.

Can't be a current pic Busy-Lizzie, I spy a catalpa in full leaf in the background. It does have the look of an evergreen though. I wondered about Stransvesia davidiana, evergreen but some of the leaves do turn red in autumn then fall off. 

Thanks for your responses- I've taken some more pictures.  The leaves have been changing colour/dropping off for a few months. It is probably evergreen, I just hope it isn't unwell!  We have heavy clay soil, but there doesn't seem to be any waterlogging.

you may have hit the nail on the head with Stransvesia davidiana, Nutcutlet! From a google image search that may be it.

It was indeed a catalpa in the background, sadly our garden is far too small for such an impressive tree and it had to go. we're planning on some more appropriately sized cordon apple trees

Looks like Photina red robin to me, although they don't usually lose their leaves.  It may have a nutrient deficiency.  I have two standard ones in my garden but they have never had any berries before.

Stransvesia is Photinia now. I forgot that.

I think this is Photinia davidiana 'Pallete'. 

That looks like the best match  yet - thanks!  Is it right that it would be best to leave pruning it until the spring?

I should think so but I've never grown it so don't take that as a fact.

I found something :Stranvaesia davidiana (Photinia davidiana) is an evergreen shrub whose close relative is a garden hybrid photinia red robin. It comes from China, Thailand and Vietnam and has better cold resistance and narrower leaves. They are deep green and glossy but emerge dark burgundy red in the spring. Before autumn some portion of older foliage inside the plant gains bright carmine red and orange colour. In the autumn the leaves at tips of the branches turn deep burgundy red again.The natural shape of Chinese photinia is rather prostrate with long, slightly arching branches. To maintain a dense shrub we recommend pruning it every year in mid spring. Grow it in full sun. It likes acidic, moist but well drained soil with high contents of organic matter. Mulching provides consistent moisture throughout the year and is necessary in colder areas. Watering is a must before and during winter unless the soil is frozen. Very hardy to min. -23°C, in protected areas to -27°C. 

Hope, it can help you a little. Please reduce the pic-pixel to 1024x or 860x , it will be faster open in this forum, greetings, ThaiGer.

...but I have some qestions too: if you have time, please look at my album, the following names I don't no, maybe someone can help...

album

1. "whatever" ?

2."ornamental grass"?

3."lily,a nice one"?Is it a lily?

4."unknown 30cm fruit"? No one Thai see this fruit before, many I ask, but nobody know them, but is growing on my land...

5.I think with the names of the "nepenthes unknown name" nobody can help me, or?

All plants are on my land long time before I bought it. Thank you verry much, ThaiGer.

Sorry ThaiGer, the grass looks like a cortaderia (pampas grasses) and the lily could be a crinum but otherwise, all new to me.

 nevertheless, thank you

I think "whatever" is a yellow cosmos or "cosmos sulphuras" which comes from the south americas. I have grown it in France.

I agree with nutcutlet about the pampas grass.

I think it's Nepenthes Ampullaria, which is a sort of carnivorous pitcher plant.

I don't know the fruit, the leaves are a bit like citrus fruits, but I can't see the fruit clearly enough.

Great pictures ThaiGer

Hi GUYS 

I think know this might  to be a` red robin`, I have two in my garden, The leaves start to turn from green to finish a deep red colour then fall off. The stems are also deep red during winter and do have small white flowers appear in late summer. My soil has clay in also but I dig in some grit around the tree a couple of times a year . Hope it helps x 

Sandra, "Red Robin" is a photinia and it has already been identified as a Photinia, but more likely to be "Pallete" which in the photos on Google has white patches on the leaves.

Hi Bookmonster

I am not altogether convinced that the shrub you show is Robinia despite the several confirmations. I suspect that it may be an Eleagnus. I think this as in one of your pics it shows the lower surface of the leaf to be very pale - almost white in colour and as far as I am aware the undersurface of Photinia leaves are darker. Variegated Eleagnus can revert to all green in colour if the green shoots are not pruned out as soon as they appear. I do hope that further research will assist you.

Happy New Year!

Liz