A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 What Am I?

Hello - We are some plants living in our owners side garden area - she's clueless as to what we are. We don't have a mouths, so we can't tell her what we're called or anything about us. She's a really nice girl and super pretty too but she just stares at with a "deer in the headlight" look - help us by telling her what we are - thanks! Signed: Katie's mystery plants

mystery vine
Reddish something

I am just a mystery

The vine looks like hydrangea paniculata.

Michael Dirr in the Manual of Woody Landscape plants calls this "the best vine" for it's all season interest. Attractive green leaves and white flowers in summer and exfoliating bark year-round.

The second looks like a peony.
The third, I'm not so sure, some type of Shasta daisy??

Hi, Av8trx!
I would need to see more growth to be positive on the vine.
The reddish something is a peony and the last looks like lambs ear (stachys)to me. Is the leaf very soft and fuzzy?

Gardencrazy - yes, the leaves are very soft and fuzzy on that plant. Does Lambs Ear spread? This seems to be spreading. Also, the dead stuff from last year, what do I do with that? I tried "pulling" some a couple of weeks ago, but I felt like I was pulling up root, so I stopped. The new growth seems to be growing straight over the old.

Peony is a flower or bush? I don't know what it is and it's close to the roses - is that bad?

Lambs ear does spread and reseeds. I usually pull the dead but if I can't I clip it off.

Peonies are flowering plants. I wouldn't think it would bother the rose.

Peonies care

Thanks for the help - I really appreciate it!

Thanks obywan - I appreciate your knowledge! I am excited to think it might be a hydrangea!

I think the vine could be a very old clematis, right on for the peony

You are probably right about pulling up the whole plant on #3 trying to get last years dead stuff, I would just leave it for now, try again in a month if it still looks bad. Or like Gardencrazy says, just clip it./

Is it possible that the last pic is Mountain bluet/aka Perennial bachelor's button/aka Mountain knapweed/aka cornflower/aka Centaurea montana ???? They have fuzzy leaves too.

picture

Yep to Mel's post on #3....
Mountain Bluet

And yes to the Peonies..

could the vine possibly be a trumpet honeysuckle vine or a trumpet vine that's been cut back incorrectly? Both vines similiar when starting to leaf.

I can take more photos of the vine thing as it seems to be budding and expanding. Last year it didn't do anything - I thought it was dead or a weed. As for #3 being mountain bluet - mine doesn't have flowers on it, or at least it didn't last year and doesn't seem to now. It spread like a weed though - it's all over the beds.

No flowers and still spread????

You will DEFINATELY have to send in more photo's as it grows and then flowers..
Pleaseeeeeee... we love a good mystery,
and we really are hopin' to solve this one...

Picture #3 is definitely Lambs Ears...you can tell by the spent "blooms" that are leaning up against the wall. The blooms are not colorful and not very attractive so I usually cut mine off. Oh ya, and you have a Lavender lower left corner.

Gooooooooooooood eye Netty!!!
I think that's right!!!

ok - Netty says the first plant in this series is lambs ear - here's another photo to make sure.
Then - I have a weed maybe? It's weed like with little white flower bunches on it - I only have one plant growing out of nowhere, that's why I think it's a weed. The last photo is of a vine that growing in my garden. It's branches are very thich and hearty - but I have no clue what it is. I don't remember it being so beautiful last year, nor do I remember any flowers every blooming on it? What's your thoughts?

lambs ear? weeds flower? vine vine close up vine leaves close up

The 3rd one you listed as "weed???" is
Alliaria petiolata /Mustard Garlic
It's on the invasive weed list...
*I have it, and it's easy to pull out when young
in nice fertile dirt. *hard pan dirt it's harder to pull out and leaves a big root in soil*

The one you have listed as vine is
Climbing Hydrangea, Here\'s some Google pages

Weezie - thanks for the info on the climbing hydrangea - I've never seen buds or flowers on it, is it like a wisteria and that phase could take years? I just used epson salt fertilizer on it - thinks that's good enough?

Your first one very well could be lambs ear..

but I would need to see it flower..

It's also lookin' more like Lychnis coronaria/Rose Campion

Weezie - it doesn't flower - or at least it didn't last year. I'll keep my eye out though for any shred of color.

If it's a lamb's ear, it'll be a very light
baby pink, small flowers on a stalk..
If it's the rose Campion, it'll be those
neon pink flowers...
I love, love, love the last one..

*I do like the lambs' ears, very soft..
but the other is my favorite..

After looking at it again..
The brown stuff at the bottom,
*not the wood chips, but the stuff,
dead debris at the bottom of the clump
is leaning me now more towards the Lamb's Ear..*