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Tea break Plant ID
Victoria Sponge
Posts: 3,502
in Plants
Hi All,
Can anyone help to identify these plants?
I received the first two as part of my '5 pot luck perennials' offer from lavender world...
1,
2,
Hosta? Soloman's Seal?
3,
It's the primula leaved one in the centre - I'm guessing it's a weed as it's grown up very quick.
4,
The smell and shape of the leaves are similar to my flowering currant but this appeared and leafed up well before the ribes did. This is a self seed btw, I just potted it up to watch it.
cheers
Vic
Wearside, England.
0
Posts
Can't help with 1 - 3 Victoria but I would have gone with Ribes for number 4 as well! Not so many plants that smell like cat wee!
Cat wee! It didn't remind me of that, but I'll have a test sniff...
The leaves are twice the size of my ribes, I'll keep an eye on it
Cheers for the reply though, Heather Much appreciated!
It only smells of cat wee when you bring the branches of flowers into the house, otherwise it smells OK.
No. 1 could be Caltha palustris - marsh marigold
No. 2 I'd go for hosta
No. 3 looks a bit like foxglove ..... but it looks a bit like several other things too .....
No. 4 is one of the ribes
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
a quick guessing game 1 might be honesty and 4 could be astrantia but leaves look a bit big
I can't help with the first three either but number 4 looks suspiciously like my flowering red currant.
Cool! Thanks so much for your replies
Dove, there are similarities with the marsh marigold, in particular how the new leaves come up
I don't remember what mine looked like when it was younger.
Kimrose, I looked up Honesty as I have never seen one in the flesh and the leaves are similar but it seemed to be a biannual? This was sold as a perennial unless there are different forms, I don't know.
2, I'm happy with hosta.
3, Dove, it does look like a foxglove, I don't know why I didn't think of that. Probably because mine don't look as nice or healthy. It's quite fuzzy like a foxglove. I've levered it up as it was quite close to an allium and it's roots were pretty deep for something that only appeared this year.
4, I think I've solved the riddle of the cat wee! Welsh onion, you are right it smells stronger in doors, but I can smell it outside as well. I can't smell my own ribes. The smell I got in the first place wasn't by sniffing the plant- I rubbed a leaf and compared it that way- it's a funky smell but I wouldn't say cat wee. I didn't notice the plant stank on its own but that does smell like cat wee... So it's definitely a ribes, it's just thriving a lot better than the one I bought last back end, but that's sods law...
kimrose, I compared it with an astrantia too, but mine are still hugging the ground round here and this is about 6" tall.
Thanks all for your replies- that was quite exciting! Might look around for some more mysteries
I think 1 might be one of the Doronicums
not sure of 3 as a foxglove but haven't a better suggestion, except I have an Adenophora that looks a bit like that and seeds into everything. It dies alone in the garden but lives on in a pot of agapanthus and various other lodgings
In the sticks near Peterborough
How about Ligularia dentata for the first one? Fairly sure it's not Caltha palustris.
Hi Nutcutlet You answered my first post last year before I got stuck in the spam filter...
Hi landgirl
Right I've been looking up images of doronicum and ligularia and it seems they are both aster family which might explain the similarities in leaf. I want to go with doronicum because the leaves are smaller than the ligularia although I don't know how old the plant is and how it might change.
According to my weed book, leopards bane leaves change shape further up the stem so maybe I'll have to wait and see.
I've decided 3 isn't a foxglove. That was a bad pic.
It's got no discernible centre and I don't believe the way this is spreading is characteristic of a foxglove, but I'm happy to be corrected
Ref the ribes, mine is pulborough scarlet so maybe the self seeded one I've found is a normal one.
Cheers for your help everyone,
Vic