Collinsonia canadensis and Campanulastrum americanum. This post was edited by carol23 on Sun, Sep 22, 13 at 21:55

Sorry - I gave you the name of the bat; the plant pictured is Burmeistera sodiroana. Another to consider is the Centropogon genus. Here is a link that might be useful: Centropogon pics

Hello Jakeh, I think the leaf of your plant come from a species of Prenanthes. The flowers are pretty insignificant and the shape of the leaves change sensibly all along the stem. Basal leaves are always the nicest on this species. Michel

Beng: Right, Rothkugel is the earliest forest planting. And, it was a planting that mixed the spruce with European larch, and black locust. As a result, the trees are in places scattered or in small groups. but, they are in a forest, and are the oldest such trees. Yes, NS were planted here way back in colonial times, but few of these trees survive, or can be documented to be from that period without core samples being taken. The oldest one--I think--that I knew of near here was at the old house at Morven Park in Leesburg, VA. But, when they did a renovation/restoration of the house, they took no care to protect the grand old tree, so it's now gone. Of course, its planting may not have been at the time of the building of the house, but If I were to take a guess, I would say that tree dated back to at least the 1880's. I consider its loss to be a great shame, and am astonished that care was not taken to protect it, and its root system, during the work. The view of it from one of the upper rooms was wonderful! The first "extensive" planting of Norway spruce in this country happened as a result of the Colombian Exposition of 1893. What I know about this is sketchy, and I am not sure how to get verification, but here goes anyway: the story I heard is that at the German Pavilion, they handed out little seedlings to anyone that wanted them, and that they also told about the tradition in Germany of a young married couple planning "bride and groom" trees in front of their house--a pair. You can still see this in front of many old homes, although they are gradually disappearing, with one or more dying, or the houses being removed, or renovated, with no protection given to the trees. Many of these pairs of trees are quite old, and could date from that year. When I travelled in England a number of years ago, I saw extensive forest plantings of Sitka spruce. I don't think they are hardy here. They planted one at the VA Arboretum, but it didn't survive. I have spent a number of years on the West coast, and explored the forests of the Pacific NW, and saw some of the giant Sitka spruce trees, some 300 feet tall, and up to, and maybe over, 17 feet in base diameter. --Spruceman