Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Identity parade

Each week at college we get a load of twigs, bits of leafy stuff, and occasionally a droopy flower or two, all in varying states of intactness, and we have to identify them. Rather than keeping all the pain to myself, I thought I'd share. So this is the first of a weekly series of guessing games - and just to make it really tricky, you only get a photo to look at, and not a very good one at that :D

There's usually a theme - last week, it was mostly twigs from trees, and this week it was mostly ivies (that's a clue, by the way). I won't inflict the whole 11 idents on you, but here's a choice selection - can you recognise any of these? (I'll give you a clue for the more difficult ones).

1.

(Clue: yes it is meant to be up that way.)

2. (Clue: it's changed its name recently - and you'll have to come up with the new one!)

3. (I'm not going to give you a clue for this one - far too easy!)

4. (Clue: this is a juvenile shoot)

5.
(Clue: it's all in the stem colour)

There aren't any prizes, beyond the right to be smug, though I might keep a running total and come up with a little something for the person who gets the most right between now and when this little series finishes, in about June. But for now, let the guessing begin - first person to guess correctly has the point, and if you haven't got them all by next week, I'll give you the answers in the comments section. Have fun!

7 comments:

VP said...

Oh Lord - I suddenly feel most inadequate :(

However, it means my plant ID skills will be much improved by June :)

Thanks CG!

Anna said...

I'll be back - maybe this time next year :)

The Constant Gardener said...

aw, you cowards :D

come on, I've already given you half the answer for most of them. have a stab at one or two and see if you get them right...

Anna said...

Is the flowering branch wintersweet ?

The Constant Gardener said...

well done Anna - no. 3 is indeed wintersweet, aka Chimonanthus praecox. Flowers all winter with the most amazing scent - but unfortunately you need to grow it on for 5-7 years before it will flower, and it's not the most attractive of shrubs in the meantime. I have one that's about 3 years old at the bottom of my garden and still waiting. Still - the anticipation is nice...!

VP said...

Anna beat me to it. Am having no joy with any of the Hedera in spite of your clues CG! Now if they were Heuchera it would be a different story :)

I like the box hedging - glad you went for the closer spacing as it means you'll have some spares if some of them don't thrive. I see you've put in some nice scrolled edging too!

I can't wait to get buying too - I've had another tip published in GW magazine, so have a nice lot of garden vouchers to spend, yippee!

Have a good weekend :)

kathy b said...
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