"Lynda LeCompte" wrote in message
news
As mentioned in the master gardener help thread, I have posted a bunch of
pics of some of the plants in my gardens, for help with identification.
For those that may not have been following, I am not familiar with a most
of these plants as I have come from a small English garden to this much
larger garden in zone 9, S. Texas!

The pics are all thumbnailed here;
http://purplelinny.com/plantid/

number 5 is Nandina Domesticus. A member of the bamboo family and overused
as foundation plantings here in the states.............. I think I
identified Yew as well from some needles that were showing in another
picture. (if Yew is planted too closely to your house, it will crack and
heave the foundation. You should see what it did to my mother's two foot
thick cement front porch slab..................)

number 10 are the berries from varigated Lirope. Hardier where you are in
zone 9 Texas, as apposed to here in zone 7, Tennessee.... hang on there is
more........
photo 24 is Bronze ajuga a great ground cover, and it will produce a spike
with sky blue flowers when it's cooler......(not sure when your season for
those would be as you're nine. Here Bronze ajuga blooms in later springtime)

number 29 is blue common violet. I love common violets and occaisonally my
garden friends take pity on me and send me clumps of them as they're very
happy reseeders. Now if I could only locate some blue and white ones, the
elusive yellow one and the dark royal purple one to plug into my patch I've
gotten started over near the fence on the west side yard.

number 35 is Aucuba japonica or Gold dust plant.

I think another picture is Papyrus.......(the one that looks like a fan?)
but it could be Chinese fan palm. You need to implore the assistance of the
local expert, Victoria. She's in Texas and probably knows every one of these
plants by visual.





As mentioned on the page, I know the elephant ear plant, but could do with
some words on that one. It was perfectly healthy last week, but that was
before a couple of frosty mornings AND having had some of its roots pulled
as they had wriggled into our septic line and was causing a blockage :-/ I
gather it makes a good house plant so was thinking about potting some of
the healthy parts to get it out of the way of the septic line.

yes, the frost nipped the leaves of the elephant ear. Are these leaves HUGE?
Or are they of medium size? Elephant ear are enormous. With your zone 9
they'd be at least three foot across and as long if not longer. Even here
when grown in the ground for spring and summer, they attain enormous
proportions. There's a place in Nashville where the people planted elephant
ears in a ditch that has a sheltered micro-climate and they pile up leaves
to protect them even more and these things have multiplied and spread all
along the ditch or run off and are visible from the road above them. It's
incredible to see........especially when you take into consideration that
they're not hardy in zone 6 during winter.

There is also a healthy shrimp flower plant there that has gotten very
leggy. I think I'll lop that back when it has finished flowering.

To think that shrimp plants here are just house plants.................

Pic #33 is ginger... I know that much, but need to find out what type it
is
and what to do with the gobs of this plant that I have domineering an
area.

There's a berry plant (#32) that's spread all over one of my veggie
patches. Is it blackberry? Whatever it is, I have to get rid of it, it's
taking over!

either blackberry or raspberry. that I know for sure. When you dig it up,
don't leave a root of it.........

Things are getting better as my hubby has just found his "Neil Sperry's
Complete Guide to Texas Gardening" book (second edition) that was in the
depths of moving boxes. Wow - what a great book! Now I'm going to be torn
between going outside and making the most of another beautiful day or
getting my nose stuck into the book... maybe I'll just take the book
outside with me...

good idea. I often times drag out a book with me to try and identify things
here. Particularly my Smokie Mountain wild flowers book or Eastern
Wildflowers book. I don't have any in my own woods but am always coming
across something somewhere else.

I really do appreciate all and any help. Maybe if someone spots something
they would like a cutting of, something can be arranged. Let me know :-)

Have fun!
--
Lynda

I hope my meager attempts were some help..........