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Name That Plant!

Need help identifying 3 landscape plants

8 years ago

We bought a new house recently and they had new landscaping put in 2-3 years ago. It's turning spring and I'm not sure what 3 of the plants are and if they need to be trimmed back. Below are the pictures. The last one seems to have sprouts already growing out the bottom, so not sure if I should trim or not at this point.

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Comments (5)

junco East Georgia zone 8a
8 years ago
The third picture is a hydrangea--you can cut ONLY the dead flowers off--the buds along the stems will produce the flowers in May. It might help to know where you are.

The first two pictures look like perennials which could be cut to the ground, but to be on the safe side I would wait a few weeks to see where they leaf out.
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
8 years ago
I agree with junco on the third one.

The second one is Amsonia hubrichtii. Go ahead and cut stems as low as you can. They will resprout from below ground.

The first one could be one of several perennials, including Nepeta/catmint or something like Silver Mound Artemisia, but I would cut the stems to 2"-3" so it can resprout from the ground regardless of specific ID.
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the more you fuss with this one.. the worse it might be.. just throw it behind the garage or something .. you could probably tear it apart.. into a 100 pieces ... and 95 will live ... on my former horse pasture lawn ... i have huge expanses of it.. instead of grass ... unlike the grass.. it doesnt go brown in july/august ... ken https://www.google.com/search?q=Sedum+sarmentosum&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwii3_-u0cXMAhWD4D4KHRLABGMQ_AUICCgC&biw=936&bih=745&dpr=0.9#tbm=isch&q=sedum+sarmentosum+ground+cover
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No, I am still here. Thanks guys for your all suggestions replies. To be honest I am more on the side of Photinia than on Camelia. It is hard to say, they have never saw any blooming on those trees and leaves do look red . But in any case I think they will keep those trees for now, they will trim but that bush (as kiminpl called blob) they probably will remove it and plant small tree as Yardvaark(9A) mentioned. Yardvaark(9A) Thanks for your design and suggestions. We like the idea of multi-trunk tree in front of the blank wall. As biondanonima said it is weird layout. The walkway leads to the driveway/garage that's correct. So thats why there are no reason for them to walk directly out the door and out to the street. And that's why they don't need walkway from the sidewalk directly to the front door. So the idea is to make this entrance more closed from the public. To plant plants in order cover the ugly layout and huge wall, make some privacy. Because the entrance is facing the main road and it is a corner house. There are used to be two huge oak trees in front of the house. When they moved in they had to cut it because they were dead. Thats why that wall look very weird. Here is the picture from 2008. Here is the picture from 2016, you still can see sign on the grass from oak trees I probably should have mention that this is corner house and facing main road. But the real entrance leads from driveway. One more picture:
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Olychick
8 years ago
Here is a good guide for pruning hydrangeas. Some varieties bloom on old wood, some on new wood, so you have to determine which kind you have in order to know how to prune. I'd remove just the dead blooms for now and see what happens this year, where the blooms come from.
pruning hydrangeas
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
be nice to know where you are..

for me in MI ... hydrenga basically die back to 3 or 4 inches ... and i prune back to the lowest good buds .. meaning if there are some winter damaged ones above it.. they arent worth coddling ...

so you can see how my advice differs wildly from the z8 peeps ...

also.. on all 3.. it would be good if you pull the mulch back 3 to 6 inches ...

also ... the one time i used black mulch.. i cooked everything in the bed.. as the mulch got too hot in july and august in sun... in the heat of summer... never again ...

and that may be why a 2 year old hydrenga looks so poor ... they are heavy water users .. and do keep in mind.. there are all kinds of H ....

the first vaguely reminds me of a Caryopteris .. but straight down pix make our job hard ...

the bottom line.. let them bud out.. and just prune back to live buds ... that rule never fails... however.. some plants do better.. in some locations by going even further ... you can not go wrong... by doing the least.. and observing for a season ...

just give them time to bud further out ...

ken

ps: and God forbid.. when you pull the mulch back ... you find landscape fabric under there... that will make the soil even hotter in summer ...
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
i hate when i forget the link

compare at link.. then delete the 'dormant part' .. to see the plant in bloom

ken

https://www.google.com/search?q=bluebeards+mist&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4nYDA0qrLAhWCloMKHdqqD2QQ_AUICCgC&biw=839&bih=745&dpr=0.9#tbm=isch&q=Caryopteris+dormant

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