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What is this tree please?

Jess 🌷 B 🌤Jess 🌷 B 🌤 Posts: 14
in Plants
Hi, can anyone help me identify this tree? It’s probably really common but I’m a novice gardener!  Thank you in advance :)
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  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited July 2018
    It looks more like a shrub than a tree.
    Maybe Philadelphus coronarius.
    It should be covered in scented 4 petal white flowers at the moment.

     
    https://www.google.com/search?q=PHILADELPHUS+CORONARIUS+LEAVES&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqzLmyl5_cAhUCmbQKHQ4MB34Q_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=943
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384
    If it had yellow flowers on before the leaves appeared in late winter/early spring, it could be an extremely overgrown Forsythia shrub. 
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Jess 🌷 B 🌤Jess 🌷 B 🌤 Posts: 14
    We have only recently moved into this house but about a month ago it had white flowers. The whole garden has been neglected by the previous owners. 

    Do do you think we can get it looking good again or should we cut our losses and plant something more attractive?
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    Wait until the autumn and it is bare ...cut it right back to about 9".
    Next spring it should regrow from the bottom.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • Jess 🌷 B 🌤Jess 🌷 B 🌤 Posts: 14
    Fab, thank you both for your replies. Please watch out for my future posts about various other overgrown plants in our garden!! :) We will get there eventually.
  • Mary370Mary370 Posts: 2,003
    You might be in for a few nice surprises.  If it has been neglected and you've just moved in, you could find some real treasures, spring flowering bulbs etc.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    If it is philadelphus and you cut it all hard back in autumn you will have no flowers next year.   I would, instead, cut out one third of all stems now right at the base and selecting the brownest and most knobbly.   You can then cut back what's left by half its length and that way you'll still get flowers next year.

    Generall speaking philadelphus are pruned back as soon as flowering finishes so they can produce the new stems which will flower the following year.   You can take out 1/3rd of the stems every year and that way it will be renewed and refreshed and maintain its vigour.   Do't forget to feed it a generous handful or two of slow release fertiliser every spring.


    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Jess 🌷 B 🌤Jess 🌷 B 🌤 Posts: 14
    Thank you for your detailed 
    advice obelixx :) Very helpful.
  • Paul B3Paul B3 Posts: 3,154
    edited July 2018
    Whilst that is a Fatsia on the right , who or what is the mysterious blue hatted figure on the left ?
    >:)
  • Jess 🌷 B 🌤Jess 🌷 B 🌤 Posts: 14
    Haha...that is my 2 year old who probably knows as much about gardening as me!  ;)
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