Thanks for the idea, Karyn! That's definitely not the skin, but it's interesting that you recognized the taste, and the leaves do look right. Now that I look them up, it seems mango leaves also look the same. Initially I didn't think it was a mango because it didn't taste like one, but I didn't realize there were so many varieties of mangoes either.

Plant 1 is larger, about 3 ft tall, with large palm-sized leaves with tiny white buds (5 petals each) coming off the central stem. (2 photos of this plant.) Plant 1: http://photos.gardenweb.com/garden/galleries/2008/07/baltimorearea_zone_6b_mystery_1.html?cat=name_that_plant and http://photos.gardenweb.com/garden/galleries/2008/07/baltimorearea_zone_6b_mystery.html?cat=name_that_plant Here is a link that might be useful: Buds on plant 1 (palm-sized leaves, tiny buds)

Agreed with the above. 2 is probably amsonia tabernaemontana; a plant that all gardeners should have 3 is salvia nemorosa which blooms are different looking from the greggii and microphylla that are more common. 4 looks like Oenothera.

Oh my! Thank you all so much for the time and the photos and the help! Sooo helpful! I went back and did a Hosta Library comparison of Elegans vs. Big Daddy, and I think Big Daddy is the winner. All but the second photo of Blue Daddy look like my plants. It would make perfect sense, too, since Big Daddy was widely available around here when these were planted, and they seem bluer and more corrugated/cupped than most of the Elegans I've seen. Most of the Hosta Library photos look exactly like what I have in my garden... the flatter overall shape, the leaf cupping, the corrugation, the leaf shape. Any difference in the Elegans vs. Blue Daddy flowers...color, size, timing? To be clear, I'm not sure when these (#1) were planted or what size they were when they were put in the ground. The previous owners did it, then we moved them and gave them better soil when we relandscaped the place two years ago. I'm guesstimating their age at 5-6 years, based on when we guess they put their other landscaping in. I'm not sure what size the plants were when they planted them. I do think #1 is Frances Williams. (This is the one that I planted/potted last year, taking a very large chunk from a mature hosta.) Since posting, four more leaves have developed that edge burn. I tucked it even further into the shade, but I'm still noticing the burn. Colors-wise, they look more like your photos of OBL, frogged. With the burn, though, that's basically telling me they're FW, right? Goodness, though.... if #2 is Big Daddy, I may have to rethink where I have them. I didn't realize they would get quite that big. I'll have to put some thought into it, because right now I have a set of three off each side of our walkway-- the main plants you see as you walk toward our house. I feel really foolish not looking into whether they were Big Daddy. Some time ago someone local said Big Daddy was difficult to grow and took forever to mature, so I figured there was no way the former owners (not gardeners at all) would have had eight happy Big Daddy hostas. Heck, *I* even had a young Big Daddy and gave it away because it seemed to be taking forever to do anything. And josephine... your Hadspen Blue is *beautiful*. Someone recently gave me Blue Jay, and I'm trying to figure out where to put it in the landscape so I can see it often and appreciate the color... how do Hadspen and Blue Jay compare, blue-wise? I love that color.