I have an amazing garden that I dont know how to care for

[whosurgirl]

Help :cry:

I just moved into a new house with a huge yard full of tons of different kinds of flowering plants. I want to figure out what kinds of plants they are so I can take care of them. Do you know of any websites that will help me do this?

Thank you!

-Jenn

[Newt]

Hi Jenn,
Congratulations on your new home! You don't say where you live, but these sites might be helpful. Look on the left of this first one and you can put in the features of the plants.
http://www.perennials.com/

Here you can browse by flower color.
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/...leryindex.html

This one is more detailed and can be used for flowering plants, trees and shrubs.
http://www.colby.edu/info.tech/BI211/PlantFamilyID.html

These should help with some trees.
http://www.oplin.lib.oh.us/products/tree/
http://www.fw.vt.edu/dendro/forsite/Idtree.htm

This one should help with shrubs and trees, but since you don't already know the names, you'll spend alot of time going through all the names.
http://woodyplants.nres.uiuc.edu/

I would also suggest that you go to the library and get some books with encyclopedias in the back of them. Then when plants come into bloom, you can more easily id them. You will probably also need to look at books on trees and shrubs.

It's important to know your hardiness zone and should be in your profile if you have more questions. Take a look here.
http://www.gardenweb.com/zones/zip.cgi

Newt

tale a(fresh) clipping of each plant in question taped to an index card, to the oldest nursery in town a good local plantperson should be able to id all of it. back away from the pc and play in the dirt LD

[swindyi]

Jenn
I am kind of late replying to your thread , but if it is not to late get in touch with a gardening club in your area and see if you can get a membe to visit your garden to help you ID your plants .I am sure some one from a garden club would be more then happy to help you out. It might be a good idia to join a garden club as you will recieve a lot of gardening information from them.
swindyi

[Janie2004]

Hi Jenn,
Would it be possible for you to invite the lady that owned your house before you, to give you a 'garden tour' and help you identify and label your flowers?

I know if I ever moved, I would be HONORED to help the new owner, nurture my flowers! :lol:

Love, Janie :D

[backyardgardener]

I was the same way on assisting the new owner of my house. I had over 300 different types of plants surrounding my home.

He/she never took up my offer.... they tried to keep up the daily maintenance, but the garden lost. The perennial and bog garden is now a larger lawn. The rock garden is a lawn and a boring bark mess. The dry garden has been stripped and is now a hill of bark.

Oh well.

I would take some pictures, and them to the forum. I can always delete them when your satisfied.

backyard

[Newt]

Backyard,
That is so very sad to hear. I usually suggest that people moving on from an established garden take plants with them when they leave or share them with friends and neighbors that they know will enjoy and nurture them. Of course the property has to be left looking like the plants were never removed.

Newt

[mla2ofus]

What a joy it would have been to buy a house with a yard like that. Our house had roses planted in an UGLY raise bed right against the house on the north side under a 30" eave! All were dead so I pulled it all out and found that nothing was put between the dirt and the porch siding-dry rot had set in! The only good thing in the whole yard was HUGE old lilacs. Too many! A hedge that was 25' long and over 12' wide plus 3 going across the yard cutting it in two. We removed the hedge and one of the three and trimmed the last two into trees. They are georgous multi-stemmed trees that look kind of oriental. Now that I've gripped enough about my yard I'll say that every one has given you excellent advise. Good luck and enjoy your bounty.