Hope I'm not pushing my luck here! - posters have been very helpful,
please let me know if I'm becoming too greedy for info. I've got a
few gardening books with pics but really don't know where to start
looking to identify this. It looks like a giant chive. Long, thin,
clean - almost polished looking - green tubes about 3mm diameter,
almost 5 ft high, finishing with a needle point and a little pom-pom
cluster of now-brownish flowers , a ball about 4 cms diameter located
at about 25cms or so from the top of each stem. Persistent rain has
caused a lot of this to keel over so I'd like to snip that back if
it's safe to do so. Ground level? Could I/should I leave those stems
which are still upright and decorative? And what is it called?
thanks for any answers.

fumbler wrote in message
...
Hope I'm not pushing my luck here! - posters have been very helpful,
please let me know if I'm becoming too greedy for info. I've got a
few gardening books with pics but really don't know where to start
looking to identify this. It looks like a giant chive. Long, thin,
clean - almost polished looking - green tubes about 3mm diameter,
almost 5 ft high, finishing with a needle point and a little pom-pom
cluster of now-brownish flowers , a ball about 4 cms diameter located
at about 25cms or so from the top of each stem. Persistent rain has
caused a lot of this to keel over so I'd like to snip that back if
it's safe to do so. Ground level? Could I/should I leave those stems
which are still upright and decorative? And what is it called?
thanks for any answers.

It's probably a giant chive. Really. Mine go like that. Possibly not 5', but
definitely 4'. Has it gone hard yet?

fumbler wrote in message
...
Hope I'm not pushing my luck here! - posters have been very helpful,
please let me know if I'm becoming too greedy for info. I've got a
few gardening books with pics but really don't know where to start
looking to identify this. It looks like a giant chive. Long, thin,
clean - almost polished looking - green tubes about 3mm diameter,
almost 5 ft high, finishing with a needle point and a little pom-pom
cluster of now-brownish flowers , a ball about 4 cms diameter located
at about 25cms or so from the top of each stem. Persistent rain has
caused a lot of this to keel over so I'd like to snip that back if
it's safe to do so. Ground level? Could I/should I leave those stems
which are still upright and decorative? And what is it called?
thanks for any answers.

Is the ground wet? it sounds rather like the sort of sedges etc we see on
wet land.

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea

fumbler wrote in message
...
Hope I'm not pushing my luck here! - posters have been very helpful,
please let me know if I'm becoming too greedy for info. I've got a
few gardening books with pics but really don't know where to start
looking to identify this. It looks like a giant chive. Long, thin,
clean - almost polished looking - green tubes about 3mm diameter,
almost 5 ft high, finishing with a needle point and a little pom-pom
cluster of now-brownish flowers , a ball about 4 cms diameter located
at about 25cms or so from the top of each stem. Persistent rain has
caused a lot of this to keel over so I'd like to snip that back if
it's safe to do so. Ground level? Could I/should I leave those stems
which are still upright and decorative? And what is it called?
thanks for any answers.

Sounds like one of the Schoenoplectus types:
http://www.missouriplants.com/GSR/Sc...gens_page.html
http://fleurs.cirad.fr/s/schoenoplectus_articulatus
http://www.amanita-photolibrary.co.u...emontani20.htm

Is it growing in or near water?

Jenny

On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:44:12 +0200, fumbler wrote:

Hope I'm not pushing my luck here! - posters have been very helpful,
please let me know if I'm becoming too greedy for info. I've got a
few gardening books with pics but really don't know where to start
looking to identify this. It looks like a giant chive. Long, thin,
clean - almost polished looking - green tubes about 3mm diameter,
almost 5 ft high, finishing with a needle point and a little pom-pom
cluster of now-brownish flowers , a ball about 4 cms diameter located
at about 25cms or so from the top of each stem. Persistent rain has
caused a lot of this to keel over so I'd like to snip that back if
it's safe to do so. Ground level? Could I/should I leave those stems
which are still upright and decorative? And what is it called?
thanks for any answers.

Sounds like Egyptian onion.


--
Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software Ltd

EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.

http://www.easynn.com

In article ,
"Uncle Marvo" writes:
|
| It's probably a giant chive. Really. Mine go like that. Possibly not 5', but
| definitely 4'. Has it gone hard yet?

Alliums have their flower clusters right at the top, and there are
several that grow quite tall. A. christophii, for one. But it
sounds like a sedge.

If it is a sedge, cutting it back (within reason) will not harm it.
they were commonly cropped for bedding, thatching and similar uses.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

thanks for all replies...the closest appears to be the Schoenoplectus
club-rush (thanks for those 3 links). It certainly has the same
flower type pushing out of a slit a distance from the top and the stem
has a circular cross-section rather than the triangulated one. No
chive smell when crushed. It's been sheeting down here so ground very
wet.
Great!, most obliged...

Uncle Marvo writes

fumbler wrote in message
.. .
Hope I'm not pushing my luck here! - posters have been very helpful,
please let me know if I'm becoming too greedy for info. I've got a
few gardening books with pics but really don't know where to start
looking to identify this. It looks like a giant chive. Long, thin,
clean - almost polished looking - green tubes about 3mm diameter,
almost 5 ft high, finishing with a needle point and a little pom-pom
cluster of now-brownish flowers , a ball about 4 cms diameter located
at about 25cms or so from the top of each stem. Persistent rain has
caused a lot of this to keel over so I'd like to snip that back if
it's safe to do so. Ground level? Could I/should I leave those stems
which are still upright and decorative? And what is it called?
thanks for any answers.

It's probably a giant chive. Really. Mine go like that. Possibly not 5', but
definitely 4'. Has it gone hard yet?

There are a lot of alliums (onions and chives) grown for ornamental
purposes, but they will smell of onion if you crush them, and the
flowers are at the top of the stem.

I'm wondering if this is one of the sedges or rushes?




--
Kay

In reply to K ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

Uncle Marvo writes

fumbler wrote in message
...
Hope I'm not pushing my luck here! - posters have been very helpful,
please let me know if I'm becoming too greedy for info. I've got a
few gardening books with pics but really don't know where to start
looking to identify this. It looks like a giant chive. Long, thin,
clean - almost polished looking - green tubes about 3mm diameter,
almost 5 ft high, finishing with a needle point and a little pom-pom
cluster of now-brownish flowers , a ball about 4 cms diameter
located at about 25cms or so from the top of each stem. Persistent
rain has caused a lot of this to keel over so I'd like to snip that
back if it's safe to do so. Ground level? Could I/should I leave
those stems which are still upright and decorative? And what is it
called? thanks for any answers.

It's probably a giant chive. Really. Mine go like that. Possibly not
5', but definitely 4'. Has it gone hard yet?

There are a lot of alliums (onions and chives) grown for ornamental
purposes, but they will smell of onion if you crush them, and the
flowers are at the top of the stem.

Whoops! I didn't read it properly.

I'm wondering if this is one of the sedges or rushes?