What is this bush/tree/plant?

[Shirl]

I love growing plants and all things gardening wise. However, I'm the grim reaper when it comes to houseplants.
Looks like you're doing well.
I can send you this if you like, it's only illustrations but still a good reference.
I went through a stage of wanting all the expert books ! I prefer them to the internet, nice to have something to hand.
View attachment 203425

That would be great. Happy to pay postage. Shall I pm my address?

 

[Calamity1971]

That would be great. Happy to pay postage. Shall I pm my address?

I'll pay the postage Shirl. Pm me your address

 

[Artaxerxes]

I've still got a nasturtium doing happily in the conservatory I've never done well with nasturtiums let alone overwintering them.

We left some nasturtium seeds in a mini greenhouse on the windowsill over winter, found the buggers growing yesterday.

 

[campanula]

The collie habit of stealing labels has again, left me scratching my head, cluelessly. I collected seeds last year but have no recollection of what or where...and now that seedlings are up, I still do not have a scooby. Any ideas? I think these were probably fairly tall, with an unusual flower panicle. The seedlings look familiar but... Christ - just noticed my filthy fingernails

 

[Calamity1971]

The collie habit of stealing labels has again, left me scratching my head, cluelessly. I collected seeds last year but have no recollection of what or where...and now that seedlings are up, I still do not have a scooby. Any ideas? I think these were probably fairly tall, with an unusual flower panicle. The seedlings look familiar but... Christ - just noticed my filthy fingernails

Dried plant maybe a wildflower, like an umbillifer? You don't see many plants with stems like that.
I'm hesitant to reply in case you tell me to fuck off for telling you how to suck eggs
I've got an array of seeds and I've no idea where I collected them.

 

[campanula]

Dried plant maybe a wildflower, like an umbillifer? You don't see many plants with stems like that.
I'm hesitant to reply in case you tell me to fuck off for telling you how to suck eggs
I've got an array of seeds and I've no idea where I collected them.

Good Grief - never (suggesting off fucking).You are usually pretty clued up on plant idents anyway. Ah it's so tantalisingly familiar. The cotyledons and first leaves are not umbellifer-like and the flower architecture and stem was not unlike thalictrum (but again, the foliage doesn't match at all).
Saving seed seems to lead to a very random collection of seedlings. I honestly cannot fathom the thinking behind a lot of my ...ahem...collection of mismatched plants (apart from being basically free).

 

[Calamity1971]

I love a free overhanging cutting or free seeds. I've got little envelopes with big white flower or little yellow thing on !
These are cracking me up. I think it might be a lily that was growing on its own where it really shouldnt have been in the woods.

Quite flat. Humboldt lily the one with curled flower petals? I seem to remember thinking I'll get seeds off that, but have no idea if I did. Probably take years to grow anyway , but yeh, free .

 

[campanula]

Yep - looks lily-like to me. I grow a few lilies from seed because they are usually reliable, if slow. There are some which have a weird germination strategy, like paeonies, germinating under ground (hypogeal) for the first season and only showing a leaf in the second year...but even so, they usually germinate like grass them can be left alone for years, with just a thinning out. Some can be in flower in a couple of years but most take about 4. Martagons, which I do grow, take around 6 years but again, can be sown and left alone to get on with it.

Talking of lilies, I found my first 3 bloody lily beetles (getting jiggy). Crushed callously underfoot.

 

[lizzieloo]

The collie habit of stealing labels has again, left me scratching my head, cluelessly. I collected seeds last year but have no recollection of what or where...and now that seedlings are up, I still do not have a scooby. Any ideas? I think these were probably fairly tall, with an unusual flower panicle. The seedlings look familiar but... Christ - just noticed my filthy fingernails

Could the middle seedlings be some kind of marigold?

 

[Calamity1971]

Cheers for that . Do I basically give them a dusting of seed compost ?
I had tonnes of Lillie's , just the Asiatic ones, but gave them away when I learnt about the poison issue with cats. Never once came across the bastard Lilly beetle. I seemed to plagued my whole life with vine weevil . Back to sifting through my pots again and more nemetodes. The little fuckers make my skin crawl.

 

[campanula]

The foliage does look a bit calendula-like, lizzieloo ...however, these pics are all of the same plant. I am guessing it grew to around 1metre tall (looking at the stems and knowing my own preferences). The dried out seedheads really ought to tip me off...except - vacant.
O yes, sodding vine weevils. I have to do the same as you - tip out all the pots and rummage through the soil looking for horrible, maggotty larvae (ewgh). Haven't ordered nematodes yet but I will do asap. You might not have a lily-beetle problem being 'ooop north'. They haven't colonised Scotland and Cumbria/Northumberland afaik. I gave quite a lot of tall 'orienpet' lilies away because they looked ridiculous in my tiny garden, but kept the smaller, daintier martagons and asiatics. They are well over 60cm already! Yep, cover the seeds with .5cm of potting mix. Do you use grit to top the pots? I have been using flint based chicken grit (heaps cheaper than horticultural grit). Chickgrit is very fine - makes a nice bed for seeds - and prevents mosses and liverworts covering the soil surface. Mixed in with the potting soil, it keeps it free draining and friable. Should be available from pet shops or online. If you get some (which I really consider worthwhile), don't get the grit which has oyster shell, get the flint based.

 

[Calamity1971]

Never used grit ,that'll be why my pots get moss and liverwort etc then only ever used vermiculite ( very occasionally).
Cheers

 

[campanula]

JonDo Mixed Poultry Grit 25kg: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy JonDo Mixed Poultry Grit 25kg at Amazon UK.

www.amazon.co.uk

Apols for Amazon link...but this is what I use. Really don't think I could live without it.

 

[campanula]

.OMG, that reads like I couldn't live without Amazon...when in point of fact, I boycott the fuckers. It was the first link which appeared.

 

[Calamity1971]

Found this, just round the bloody corner as well ! eBay sell the jondo stuff but it has the oyster shell in.
Does that looks reasonable if it wasn't sold out?
Quality poultry equipment and supplies from Durham Hens
ETA campanula

 

[campanula]

Yep, Calamity - try the small bag of flint grit...then you can get a larger bag when they have it in stock. I put it on all my seedling pots. I tend not to use the small chick grit for covering biger pots of alpines and such because it mixes with the soil easily and doesn't really look like topdressing...but for raising seedlings, chickgrit is unbeatable. You will never look back.
The stuff with oyster shell tends to raise the ph a bit (to more alkaline)...but I doubt it has any deleterious effects - just that I have always used the flint only stuff. It works out shitloads cheaper than buying horticultural gravel (which is never fine enough for seedlings either.

 

[chainsawjob]

Does anyone know what this is? It's quite woody at the base, and it's growing up through the concrete in my garden. I feel like it will flower, but I don't know what it is, some sort of shrub?

 

[gentlegreen]

Does anyone know what this is? It's quite woody at the base, and it's growing up through the concrete in my garden. I feel like it will flower, but I don't know what it is, some sort of shrub?

View attachment 206555

buddleia ?
if so it will simply have got there as a seed.

Though to be honest it looks a bit too fresh and green ...

 

[Calamity1971]

I'd go buddleia as well.
The new shoots on mine for comparison.

 

[gentlegreen]

They don't need more than a crack to get going

 

[lizzieloo]

They don't need more than a crack to get going

Wahey

 

[Calamity1971]

They don't need more than a crack to get going

You see them growing out of mortar on walls along the railway .

 

[chainsawjob]

Ah! Thanks everyone

 

[gentlegreen]

You see them growing out of mortar on walls along the railway .

Railtrack spend millions keeping them under control - second only to Japanese knotweed in that regard.

 

[Numbers]

May I ask if someone can help identify this, is it a Lupin? We have a Lupin in a pot (I think, we definitely used to) which hasn’t come up yet.

2 of these have appeared from nowhere in a previously untended to bit of garden.

Cheers

 

[Leafster]

I think they're spanish bluebells.

 

[lizzieloo]

It's a bluebell.

Not necessarily Spanish.

 

[gentlegreen]

I think they're spanish bluebells.

campanula hates them, but they come back so reliably - they were in my garden 35 years ago and at times I pulled them up ruthlessly, but when my gardening is interupted by life I'm glad of them...
I'm hopefully about to cycle through suburbia and may get as far as proper smelly bluebells, but i will be cheered by these ...

 

[Numbers]

It's a bluebell.

Not necessarily Spanish.

Where would it have come from? (apologies if question is a bit n00b). Gardens either side of us are concrete/no plants and we’ve never had them before.

 

[gentlegreen]

Where would it have come from? (apologies if question is a bit n00b). Gardens either side of us are concrete/no plants and we’ve never had them before.

I imagine they fairly reliably set viable seed - plus they sneak in with other plants - mine migrated from back to front with no effort