The photos aren't great but I think you get the overall appearance and height of the plant from them. For some reason this photo turned sideways although it appears correct when I open it from my file. :( Not sure how to fix that.

Looks like Cornus kousa.

Right now the lilacs are blooming and their smell is permeating my whole yard! The columbine buds are just opening up, my daphne burkwoodi is blooming and smells amazing, the daffodils are pretty much over, but I have a few that were planted in shadier places that are still gallantly hanging on, the violets are pretty much done (but what a show this year! My whole yard was carpeted purple). The grape hyacinth is still going, the bluebells are just breaking open, the wood phlox is blooming, my crabapple is waning, the magnolia tree has a few blooms left on it, but has mostly gone to leaves now, the frittilaria persica and snakes head frittilarias are still hanging on (though looking a little spent). My azaleas would be blooming if they hadn't been pruned by the deer this year (grr). Nelly Moser Clematis is budding out, my sweet autumn clematis is climbing my porch like a crazy thing. The peonies are budding, as are most of my roses (I think Cardinal de Richelieu will be the first to bloom this year). My hydrangeas are all getting nice fat leaves, the bees balm and echinachea are coming up and crowding out as many plants as they can. The scrubby honeysuckle bushes are blooming. Oriental, Tiger, and Asiastic Lilies are coming up everywhere, some even getting buds, too. Daylilies have leafed out. I have two little tiny redbud trees that I planted this year, so no blooms from them yet, but everyone else seems to have gorgeous redbuds right now! The bleeding hearts are still looking great, the forget me nots (both blue and pink) are looking a little scraggly but still blooming. The flowering quince is pretty much done blooming. The bearded irises aren't quite blooming yet, but I can see the color of their buds, so they're close. The catmint is sprawling everywhere, but no blooms yet. Yesterday I bit the bullet and bought annuals - most of the local farms have already seeded their cosmos and zinnias and tomorrow there's going to be a bunch of tomato and pepper start sales, so I'm figuring that I can trust their judgement. I put in pansies (double ruffle and antique shades) and violas quite a while ago, but yesterday I added nicotiana, lilac and dark purple salvia, verbena, snapdragons, purple and white sweet allysum, pinks, and my favorites - which I was SO excited to have found - stock and annual phlox! The stock is in a light pink color, dusty rose, lilac, dark purple and sort of a brownish red (that doesn't sound very pretty, but it looks amazing - very old fashioned looking) and it smells wonderful, like sweet cloves! I planted all the annuals into containers along with some miniature roses and rosemary. But it's the tulips who are the crown jewel of my garden right now - providing most of the color. Last fall was the first year I really went all out and planted them and I was a little worried in early spring when the first ones started - they looked so cultivated and fat compared to the whispy growth that was going on around them -but now they're all up and blooming and they look like balloons floating over the garden - I planted peony tulips, parrot tulips, early and late ones - they're all blooming together right now in dark purple, dark red, lilac, sunset pink (sort of a light pink with yellow and orange smoothed in) muted yellow, lipstick pink, and cream with soft pink streaks. I'm definitely putting in more next year. They're giving me an amazing show. Whew! I'm sure I missed something - oh - the ox eye daisies are getting ready to go - and the oriental poppies, too! And my sweet peas are up and growing and also my snow peas and sugar snaps, too. And lettuce mixes. And asparagus. And lots of weeds. Spring is certainly amazing, isn't it?

Generally blackberries, and other brambles, seem to like the same soil conditions that Camelia and Rhododendrons do so unless you eliminate all the roots from them you will see them forever. The single best method of control is to keep the green above the ground part of the plant cut off so the roots do not get any nutrients and eventually starve and they die. We should not be poisoning our planet with weed killers. http://www.guarding-our-earth.com/aggrand/roundup.htm Compiled by Caroline Cox, Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides- (NCAP) Roundup, and related herbicides with glyphosate as an active ingredient, are advertised as products that can "eradicate weeds and unwanted grasses effectively with a high level of environmental safety." However, an independent, accurate evaluation of their health and environmental hazards can draw conclusions very different from those presented in the ads. Consider these facts: 1. Glyphosate can be persistent. In tests conducted by Monsanto, manufacturer of glyphosate-containing herbicides, up to 140 days were required for half of the applied glyphosate to break down or disappear from agricultural soils. At harvest, residues of glyphosate were found in lettuce, carrots, and barley planted one year after glyphosate treatment. 2. Glyphosate can drift. Test conducted by the University of California, Davis, found that glyphosate drifted up to 400 meters (1300 feet) during ground applications and 800 meters 12600 feet) during aerial applications. 3. Glyphosate is acutely toxic to humans. Ingesting about 3/4 of a cup can be lethal. Symptoms include eye and skin irritation, lung congestion, and erosion of the intestinal tract. Between 1984 and 1990 in California, glyphosate was the third most frequently reported cause of illness related to agricultural pesticide use. 4. Glyphosate has shown a wide spectrum of chronic toxicity in laboratory tests. The National Toxicology Program found that chronic feeding of glyphosate caused salivary gland lesions, reduced sperm counts, and a lengthened estrous cycle (how often an individual comes into heat). Other chronic effects found in laboratory tests include an increase in the frequency of lethal mutations in fruit flies, an increase in frequency of pancreas and liver tumors in male rats along with an increase in the frequency of thyroid tumors in females, and cataracts. (ne fruit fly study used Roundup; the other studies used glyphosate.) 5. Roundup contains toxic trade secret ingredients. These include polyethoxylated tallowamines, causing nausea and diarrhea, and isopropylamine, causing chemical pneumonia, laryngitis, headache, and bums. 6. Roundup kills beneficial insects. Tests conducted by The International Organization for Biological Control showed that Roundup caused mortality of live beneficial species: a Thrichgramma, a predatory mite, a lacewing, a ladybug, and a predatory beetle. 7. Glyphosate is hazardous to earthworms, Tests using New Zealand's most common earthworm showed that glyphosate, in amounts as low as 1/20 of standard application rates, reduced its growth and slowed its development. 8. Roundup inhibits mycorrhizal fungi. Canadian studies have shown that as little as 1 part per million of Roundup can reduce the growth or colonization of mycorrhizal fungi. 9. Glyphosate reduces nitrogen fixation. Amounts as small as 2 parts per million have had significant effects, and effects have been measured up to 120 days after treatment. Nitrogen- fixing bacteria shown to be impacted by glyphosate include a species found on soybeans and several species found on clover. 10. Roundup can increase the spread or severity of plant diseases. Treatment with roundup increased the severity of Rhizoctonia root rot in barley, increased the amount and growth of take-all fungus, a wheat disease), and reduced the ability of bean plants to defend themselves against anthracnose.