New here - big identification project! Need lots of help...

[annageckos]

Lots of plants can be invasive and destructive. The trick is knowing ahead of time what their habits are and gearing up to deal with them.

I know that. The house had a large area of ivy in it when we moved in. The home we rented before had ivy too, killing a dogwood tree. Every time I have seen english ivy it is in massive amounts strangling everything around it. I don't think it can truly be controlled for long.

 

[thistlebloom]

Yeah, I know what you mean. When you have a bad experience with a certain plant it's difficult to ever think of it as useful. I can't look at Bishops Weed without shuddering.

 

[Andrew]

Hi again....

I've added a new pic to help identify the "mystery bush" (#31) - http://home.comcast.net/~turner410/yard/plant-pix/30.html

Hopefully that will help.

Regarding the Ivy, I sure don't want it to kill anything, including my siding/foundation - can this be grown from planters up a trellis successfully?

thanks!
Andrew

 

[thistlebloom]

I believe what you have there is a hypericum (St. Johns wort).


Regarding the ivy, I don't think you'll want it that close to your house.
All that beautiful ivy you see growing on old homes and "ivy league" colleges is a maintenance nightmare. They climb with holdfasts, little suckerpads that are destructive to mortar and wood. Growing it on a trellis would work only if you are hyper diligent about keeping it from fastening on to your house. Get yourself a machete.
That said, it makes a decent ground cover if you keep it in bounds.

 

[Andrew]

Hey, I think that's it! -

Hypericum... - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypericum

St. John's Wort indeed. And look at that one in the pic on the right of the Wiki page - Looks like fireworks going off inside!

The issue with these is that they grow from the ground in a cluster of stems, an it's getting too close to the house. Going to look up how to trim/move these now.



Andrew

 

[Andrew]

So... Eight years later.

The yard has been through a lot, and not necessarily for the better! We've lost that big beautiful Bradford Pear, 2 out of 3 Eouynomus alata, had a few more things die off here and there Also removed all the bushes around the deck as they'd become all gangly and broken... lots of work to do.

Stay tuned... will be updating the original plan and adding some photos, and asking advice soon...

 

[flowerbug]

So... Eight years later.

The yard has been through a lot, and not necessarily for the better! We've lost that big beautiful Bradford Pear, 2 out of 3 Eouynomus alata, had a few more things die off here and there Also removed all the bushes around the deck as they'd become all gangly and broken... lots of work to do.

Stay tuned... will be updating the original plan and adding some photos, and asking advice soon...

welcome back, and thanks for the idea of active areas in images, i'd not looked into that before so i was able to find and save an example that may come in handy eventually.

and, well, with gardening/landscaping there's always plenty to do if you can get to it.