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Can you help me identify these

ElizabethElizabeth Posts: 11

I am helping friends sort out their garden after having moved to an older neglected property. The garden was originally landscaped but has had nothing much done to it in years

hence topiary bushes have got completely out of hand and plants are enormous and self seeders are everywhere.

We are cutting back a lot of stuff and if we lose things we do, but there are one or two things that it would be a shame to lose through ignorance. Could anybody identify this bush/tree and then I can find out when to cut it back. It must be at least 12 feet high as is the Fatsia next to it. It has beautiful red/brown leaves with fluffy type flowers (?).

Also a lily type plant. Thank you so much.

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Posts

  • Fif2Fif2 Posts: 69

    The first one is a smoke bush/smoke tree.  I don't know what the lily is.

  • I agree the first one smoke bush COTINUS  the second looks like day lily HEMEROCALLIS

  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318

    Definitely a Smoke Tree, I have one that is very precious to me, planted by my husband who passed away. I tried many times to strike cuttings and spoke to an RHS advice person in desperation, he said they couldn't strike cuttings either but they had successfully cut the tree back hard and it had always come back. Time to chop is Feb apparently so I am going to pluck up courage and have a bash in the new year.

    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,087

    Definitely a cotinus/smoke bush and one of the many newer forms of hemerocallis.

    Have you tried layering a stem of your cotinus herbaceous?  That might work better than cuttings and you could do a couple now as backup in case the hard prune goes wrong.

    I found this just now - http://www.landspro.com/forums/showthread.php?1923-Cotinus-propagation    Says to use soft, side cuttings as these are more successful than traditional semi-ripe cuttings.   Wish I'd found it sooner as I've a cotinus to propagate too.

    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
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318

    I have Obelixx, softwood, hardwood, layered, leaf and stem. I reckon the seeds are sterile, that's when I tried the chap at Wisley. I haven't tried the method on that thread though, since I can't do the pruning until Feb maybe I'll try pinching out a few shoots in the meantime and see what happens. Thank you for pointing me towards it image

    I just get a bit paranoid about messing with 'family' plants in case I lose them as well as the family member. That sounds a bit bonkers doesn't it? Matters to me though, bamboo and cotinus from my husband, lavender from my dad, aloe from my mum, myrtle from my mother-in-law and so it goes on. Always managed to get a back up of everything except bamboo (which is not a big problem as it is very tough to kill) and the cotinus.

    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,087

    I quite understand H.   I'm leaving this garden soon and have taken cuttings and divisions of plants with special attachments to people we have loved.

    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
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