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Please help in identification!
Periwinkle2
Posts: 6
in Plants
Dear experts!
I have recently moved to a new house with an amazing garden full of lots of lovely plants, flowers and shrubs.
I love the garden, and love a bit of gardening, but I really have no idea what anything is, and what I am meant to do with it to look after it.
Please help me identify things, so I can start to sort things out for the summer!
First up is a huge plant with grass like leaves and v tall (10ft) flower stems, which are now browny black, with sead pods dangling off it:
I have no idea what colour the flowers were, what it is, and whether I need to do anything with the pods/stalks before summer
Many thanks in advance!
0
Posts
Can't see the picture. Please use the tree icon to upload a photo from your PC.
As for the garden and its plants, the best advice for the first growing season in any new garden is to leave it be and watch what grows and take regular photos. This will help you identify what you have and like and what you want to get rid of or move or lift and divide come the autumn.
You shoud scatter some general feed around - chicken, cow and horse manure or blood, fish and bone to give everything a boost and some organic slug pellets for protection. Weed any obvious menaces such as nettles, creeping buttercup, thistles, couch grass, groundsel, goosegrass/sticky bud and so on and cut off any dead and brown stems on grasses and perennials so new growth can come through. Shrub roses need pruning now too.
If you don't recognise the weeds you can google for pictures and for rose pruning, see here - https://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/Profile?PID=186
thank you obelixx.
have tried to upload, but does;t seem to be working... i have a mac, maybe that's why?
Hi, just saw your question. I can't see the photo but it sounds like phormium. Look it up on google. They can be huge. I've taken the flower spikes off my friends one this morning and the spikes were about 8ft long.
wow - jekyllandhide - spot on!
it is indeed phormium. very grateful. Now to learn how to look after it!
Hi Periwinkle
if it is a phormium , then it a very hardy plant. I have had a few in my garden but normally they are in pots. Will not normally require much maintenance except removing any dead or untidy foliage. Also they respond to a good feed of bonemeal to the base of the plant
I hope your new garden give you a lot of pleasure
Totally agree with greenfingers steve. I took the spent flower spikes off today (cutting as low as feasible) and just trimmed any dead foliage back the same way. Sometimes, if it's getting too wide I might cut the foliage off from around the outside at the base but this is simply to tidy and probably not necessary. Enjoy your new garden.