Tall plant I thought was a pampas until white flowers bloome

Hi there from Bonny Scotland!

I inherited a lovely wee garden at the end of last year. I am a beginner to gardening (unless a well established evergree oneas I am a dab hand with a Black and Decker hedge trimmer!), and would like to look after and keep some of the plants. The first one that is perplexing me as to a) its name to look up about it and b) what to do and when is this one I thought was going to be a pampas grass. Only, it produced these beautiful long tall stemps with these wonderful flowers. It "appears" to be growing all over the garden little babies though which I am pulling up and there are tons of corkscrew like bulbs just under the earth around it (its tubours?). Can you help, as the flowers are now dying and there are a whole bunch of seeds on the ends. Worried they will shoot up all over the place, or I cut back to soon and kill the plant of flowers for next year !!!!

No Idea yet what the plant is, I do recognise it but cant for the life of me, think of the name, dont worry though, someone else will come onto the thread and be able to identify it I feel sure, for now though, the best way to halt the seeding of plants is as the flowers fade and die, then cut off the flower stem only, this will halt the seed formation, dont cut the greenery as you want this to die back naturaly and send food and energy back down to the bulb/tuber so it can be strong for the flowering next year, some plants do give a second flush of flowers after deadheading, but bulbs usually only flower once, hope this helps in the short term, I will keep trying to jog my memory for the name, then I can get back to you as to the care etc of this lovely little plant, I am also from Scotland so it's good to hear from a native, Good Luck and happy gardening. WeeNel.

Very pretty! so is the cute little elephant planter in the background..I haven't a clue and am curious now.....good luck!

Thanks for both your comments. The elephant planter in the background was one that came with a top with a Budah on it and two grooves to put tealights in on either side. I found it a bit OTT and I have two of them. One is now sittingon the office desk with some things in it, and the other outside. Not everything has to be used for the purpose it was made for my mum taught me (daft Aquarian she never uses anything as intended and has a beautiful ice bucket at the bottom of her stairs to put things in, she intends to take upstairs, instead of a stair basket!). Fortunately, I don't carry all her ecentricities ! Hopefully we shall get the name of this plant identified soon! I will cut off some seed heads now the flowers are grown and leave some in case someone else says they are useful for something, till I get other replies. I bought the house last November, and so most the grass is evergreen with someolder ones turning silver which I pulled out tons of and then this all appeared !

Can you try to get another clearer picture of the flowers? I think it's the sun glare or something in the picture but it's hard to see any detail of the flowers themselves.

Are the flowers completely white or do they have a coloured "throat".....yes a close up would be good....I think your mum and I would get along just fine!*grinning*

Hey Chrissy, is there a plague of brain malfuction going around, my brain is like mush also, whatever the cause, it must be infectious, mybe the mum, you and I should start a new thread for all the nice but nutty folks on the plannet eh, Going off to bed now before I do, say, touch or think anything else that is mad, happy gardening WeeNel.

Is it some kind of yucca?

Nighty night Wee Nell.....love all the hard work you put into the forums....love nice nuts too :^))).....Would I look stupid if I said Dietes....that plant has me stumped ......looking forward to you sorting it *smiling*.......Chrissy ( by the way please do drop in and liven up our Australian forum!....we gotta stir them up over there ...just a handful of hard working folk doing all the work.... think everyone is a little shy.......:^).......Chrissy

Chrissy, have'nt had time to get to the plant name yet, had visitors all week and another lot arrived for the weekend, that's what you get when you live by the sea eh, all city folks who love to come to the countryside and ocean an keep me out of my garden, pitty about the lack of folks on your Ausie site, but never met a shy Ausie yet, I dont think I shoul go there as I have just upset my second visitor to this site through the lingo difficulties, even though I did not intend that, but I hope my appologies have been accepted, dont think the Ausie site is ready for me yet, Ha, Ha, Ha, will try have a search for the plant tomorrow, as I am so sure I have seen it, but I prob have it in my own garden and cant see whats in front of my nose, My brain has turned to mush the last few days because of all the visitors, must tell them to bug off and let me get my head sorted, love them all, but boy, they are like buses, they all turn up at the one time, AND when the sun is shinning, husband and I almost ended up over your way but stayed in Bali longer than planned, it was the year before the bombing, so we got to see it in all it's beauty and not the devistation we witnessed on TV, you be good Chrissy, and stay in touch with us all, you make me laugh. Happy Gardening. WeeNel.

ISC,

Your plant is http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/93938/

I am a coleus man>

This message was edited Jul 1, 2007 10:50 PM

Oh Wee Nel we would soooo love you "Down Under"....I think everyone is a little shy ...believe it or not I was scared to come into Daves garden....but so happy to find a place that would let me chat gardening without appearing to be having an obsessive compulsive disorder ha ha ha.....only true garden lovers can understand other gardeners don't you think?....I admit a lot of the technical terms are a little scary but ...I know what I know and because of that I venture into the wonderful maize! Please come over to our site.......pretty please with strawberries and cream...we all have so much to gain from each other and B*gger the spelling and fancy terms! lets just enjoy each others knowledge and company.......oh by the way that is an invitation to all you wonderful people come on it's this way ((((((((((((((((((-> :^)))

Chrissy you have won me over, I will give it a go, BUT, you will have to give me directions (I am a computer illiterate when it comes to searching the net, I once was looking for a climbing rose, new the name but not a supplier, got p-- off and ended typing in roes garden, never saw such positions, body movements or smilling faces in all my life, got so embarassed just about threw the computer out the window, was expecting the cops at the door for weeks, anyway thats a whole new chapter for another thread obviously, dont want trowels, rakes and forks flying through the air, Ha, Ha, Ha, just could'nt believe how stupid I could be. so pass on the PROPER site details and I will see if I can manage to get to you. good luck, WeeNel.

Hi Dale, if the plant is called Libertea, how come I am looking at a picture of a Coleus, have I switched channels again and no one told me, or are they related in some way. cant see any resemblance, more info please before I'm back on the pills again, WeeNel.

I think Dale was just posting the coleus for fun, nothing to do with the Libertia. So no need for the pills!

Oh Wee Nell ...I am sooo glad that I am not alone...in that regard
I am pretty new to all things in cyberspace but ...mate....if I can anyone can ...just don't let it frighten you .....do you go to your "home"..up the top far left.....click on and it tells you....just about all you need to know (says she who only found it two days ago ...see what I mean)...I have sent you a D mail.....someone had to tell me to look at mine *blushing bright red* if you like a posted question you can click the thingo that says follow your favourite thread.....also any particular forum you enjoy you add it to the thingy that says your favourites and then every time you come online ...go to your home page and it is all there for you to check.If you wander into a forum that has a zillion posts and you are too tired to look at it all just click that little arrow in the top left corner....that will take you back to the top of the post and you can click home or what ever forum you like.There are so many really interesting things to look at honestly it will take weeks...but it is just fantastic! (((a Hug)))

Ecrane thanks for sorting out the stupid mistakes I make with the humour and the lingo, I am beginning to look on you as my guardian angel to keep me right, did'nt take the happy pills glad to say, I even managed to get out into the garden today and trim my box hedges, just for a few hours, the sun came out, we are having a really cool wet summer here this year, my garden is being trashed by the heavy showers, hey thats gardening, if it was all easy and roses up over the doors, we would still complane about the weather I guess, happy gardening Ecrane and keep a watchfull eye out for my next muddle, Weenel.

Sorry about all your rain--seems like everyone either has way too much of it or way too little, some people in parts of the US right now are having really bad flooding but other people are having droughts, so plenty for everyone to complain about! I'm hiding in my air conditioning right now, temperature is 102 outside right now. No rain here but we never get any in the summer so it's really no different than usual!

thanks Ecrane, the good thing about the rain this past year is that some things have really loved it, like my Rhododendrons, they put out a reall good show for me whereas, I would normally have to water them come June?July so the buds for next year get nice and plump, but we had a really wet winter too, but this year, we had a heatwave from about March to April, so all my herbacious plants like luppins. Delphiniums Catmint etc made great growth, then just as everything was looking wonderful, back came the cold and wet, like you in the USA, some parts of UK are flooding to the extent that homes are lost and this is in places where by now, they would have hosepipe bans, it sure is a funny old world right now as far as the weather goes. Take care Ecrane, happy Gardening. Weenel.