I'll be a contrarian tonight and disagree. Before Stitz jumps from underlines and bold to italics, consider the following: 1. We aren't dealing with a white phal or a yellow oncidium. 99.9999999999% of these types of intergenerics available to the public are clones, not seedlings. So its fair to assume that this is a clone. Thus, a bit of judicious research into available clones could very well net you an ID. "Very similar to" in this instance, I posit, does indeed count! 2. Unlike the millions of white phal seedlings, I don't believe you'll even be able to find even 3 different intergenerics the look identical to this. I challenge you to find them now...I'll wait...were you able to find anything? 3. Considering this, I believe the markings are far too distinctive to dismiss off hand it as unidentifiable, right down to the yellow below the column. Compare to this ID'd marfitch from Elk Grove Orchids, keeping in mind the *faint* differences in spotting and color, assuming they are one and the same, are wholly attributable to different growing temperatures (google M'HD' and you'll find wide variation in the coloring and spotting). The one in this pic, based on the purple color and high proliferation of spotting, was grown slightly cooler. 4. You can't off hand claim every tagless plant is unidentifiable. We ID a bunch here and on another forum all the time! ANDREA: 1. Can you post a photo that is face on to the flower? My 2 cents. I don't lightly ascribe names to every tagless plant. However, this is one instance where I personally believe the plant IS identifiable, and I stand by the positive ID of Beallara Marfitch 'Howards Dream'. You are naturally welcome to disagree :) I'll agree with Howard though, whatever it is, its beautiful!

Thanks, Marie. I can't get out much now, but I can search the web. This was a matter of exigency because I don't stake unless there is no other way. I have a bunch of hoop stakes but didn't want to use them on this. I don't have anything natural that is strong enough to hold anything but small plants that don't need to be staked. I also have a green heavy nylon twine, but I didn't want it to cut into the stems and bruise them. I've got regular old twine. If I hadn't been using the rebar I have, I would use that because it wouldn't show as much. Over on the antique rose forum, we use a lot of rebar. The roses soon hide it, and I asked my son to pick me up two 5' sections so I can tie a huge rose back (use my dk nylon loosely for that) so it doesn't hang over the sidewalk. I love bamboo, and you can buy long sections here, but it's expensive if you want a lot. I wanted to use raffia and make things for the garden with it. What I really want to do is make some small fence or trellis out of some of my white birch branches I've been saving, but I don't have a good plan in my head. That twig furniture, maybe somebody on Freecycle would give me some branches for more aesthetic staking that I can tie with raffia. I have some of my own books about that but nothing about stakes in particular. I'll check around the web. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I'm still cutting it back after it blooms and think it will still lean. I'll look for some of the things you mentioned. It looks awful, I know that, but landscape tape is gentle. I could have tied it in smaller sections, but wanted it done and over with. I'm more concerned about saving the blooms than how it looks I'll split the part near the sidewalk off, and get more plants out of it and put that somewhere else or give it away. It just spread too much closer to the sidewalk and it's supposed to be at the back of the border. The gypsophilia probably won't come back next year. At this point, I'm more concerned with how to pinch out those plants right so maybe I won't have to stake them. I do know when and how to pinch back my phlox. Heck I could have used a couple tomato cages further back, then try to less obtrusively tie the ones in front to that, a few in a bunch. Never thought of it.

Since starting and growing so many different plants I have started using Paw Paws Everlasting Labels. They are metal and come in all sizes and the ones I use have the little legs on them to push down into the ground to mark your plants. I will have to say that my iris beds and daylily beds look more like a business area, than a personal flowerbed. All of them are in rows of 5 with each row over 100ft long. I have 5 different sections, with each having 5 rows in them. They each have a metal label with their name, the name of either the company or person I got then from, and the date if possible. I will say it looks pretty neat at night when the moon light is beaming down and reflecting on the signs. They are a little pricey but they are well worth it.The best part about these labels/plant markers is that you can read whatever is on them without having to bend over and so forth. The people at Paw Paws are also very nice. I will say that a couple of people complained about the sign sliding down the legs sometimes. I must say that is caused by not spreading the legs out before pressing them into the ground. They can't slide down if the legs are spread out. I personally use nothing but the rose markers. May not be able to purchase any more since I'm no longer employed. Ya'll pray for me to be able to find another job.They are hard to come by out here in the country. I'm a little depressed at this time. I still had several orders of daylilies and things I need to finish paying off. I can't use our Social Security money for that. (frown) I'm beside myself. Marian

Jo, when I opened you post and saw your picture it took my breath away. My very first thought is it looked much like the Northern Exposure I'd just planted 4 weeks ago. Chris and Ken, I ALWAYS love when you dive into ID'ing a hosta. Your knowledge and logic is refreshing. As I am sure you have noticed from my other posts I tend to treat hostas as an exact science, and it is not. VC used to be a must for me, but how many hostas have 7-9 vp! Note that is a statement, not a ? No one answered your ? about what veins count Jo. You count all paired veins: full, incomplete and the ones that begin at the base as one and divide into two (can't recall what they are called at the moment) are counted as two. I have found they are usually much more easily counted if you look at the underside, as your pictures show. While knowing which hosta is which is still fun, it is just adding to my love of them. My little, apparently stable and therefore rare variegated seedling will never have a formal name, except what is in my heart. I hope you have success with your gift. Theresa This post was edited by gogirlterri on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 9:06