Bush Identification

[keith lockey]

Can anyone tell me what this bush is? I have two at the bottom of my garden and I can't remember what they are called!!! They are swarming with bees - which is great.

[ex Bedlingtonian]

Is it a hawthorn?

[Symptoms]

Pyracantha (sometimes known as Firethorn). Wrong shaped leaves for hawthorn.

[keith lockey]

It looks like a hawthorn but I don't get any berries and it hasn't any thorns.

I don't think it's pyracantha, either symptoms.

It is over the roof of my wash-house and as I said before, the bees love it.

[Orloff]

I'm no gardener but it looks like a wild rose to me!

[keith lockey]

I'm no gardener but it looks like a wild rose to me!

I checked it out, Orloff, but no. The branches of mine are thick - I had to use a hack saw to cut it back at one time. As you can see from the photos they are dense and reach over the wash house. It does resemble the hawthorn but no berries and no thorns.

[doglover]

it looks like a flowering cherry to me

[keith lockey]

it looks like a flowering cherry to me

Just checked it out on Google images, sorry Doglover, it's not that either.

[Keith Scantlebury]

Now I think it could be a type of Fallopia, (Russian Vine) it grows at a rate of knots every year and takes over shed roofs etc.

[Maggie/915]

Are the leaves evergreen?

They look small but like Laurel?

Obviously the flowers are not laurel.

This is a little like a Keith Quiz.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Keith, only because I have an old 'The Readers Digest Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants and Flowers' that shows a load of photos of some of the 250 + species I think it has to be a variey of wild rose and I have spotted a couple where the flower petals/clusters and leaves very very similar to yours.

Rosa paulii looks exactly like yours but the description says 4' high by 15' spread, so if it's yours you have planted it on it's side! Small bright round hips in autumn.

Rosa rubrifolia also very similar, descriptions say 7' high by 5' spread.

I can't find a picture with one + bee of that size. Are you feeding the bees?

[Vic Patterson]

My guess would be Wild Cherry! not from my limited knowledge but using the attached guide. (there are several out there) To use most guides you really need to be near the plant as it asks several questions, shape and type of leaf, opposite or staggered etc. (I'd bet my mom would have known!)

http://www2.bgfl.org...ts2/tree_id.htm

http://www.british-trees.com/treeguide/cherries/nbnsys0000003417

Edited July 6, 2013 by Vic Patterson

[keith lockey]

Sorry for not getting back sooner, everyone, I'm having some probs with my PC.

There is nothing mentioned that is close to the plant, accept the hawthorn. I've checked on Google images for the different types put forward but nothing matches. Mind you there seems to be an interesting DVD called Wild Cherry that I might just watch tonight with the curtains shut and the lights off!!!

But keep trying, the blooms are more pink now and the leaves are waxy small and green. Check the third photo for a closer look. They are to the left and right of the bee's backside - the Latin term which is anus stingius.

[Eileen]

Hi Keith, love the flowers, sorry i dont know what its called, but any chance of a cutting. I hope you realise im going to spend the rest of my weekend trying to fine the name of your bush, thank u.

[Maggie/915]

Prunus P.Incisa!

Maybe

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Escallonia :- Evergreen

Sweetly scented

Wind resistant

Holds the RHS garden of merit award

Escallonia 'Apple Blossom' is a compact evergreen shrub at around 1.8 to 2.4m in height when mature. It has small leathery, glossy mid green leaves and produces cup shaped blush pink and white flowers from mid spring well into summer. It will thrive in any moist well drained soils in sun or partial shade so is ideal. Doesn't mind wind so will make a good barrier for other more delicate plants.The plant supplied will be around 30cms tall in a 9cm pot with multi growing stems.

[John Fox (foxy)]

They are to the left and right of the bee's backside - the Latin term which is anus stingius.

:)

[keith lockey]

AND THE WINNER IS...EGGY!!!

I think that's it, Eggy, Apple Blossom.

You realise your prize for giving me the correct answer is the honour of cutting the bush back; and whilst you're at it you might as well mow the lawn as well; then there's the side garden that needs weeding, but don't worry I'll make you a cuppa as you go along...mind you you'll have to work around the cat's poo, I've tried training them to do it in other people's gardens but no luck so far, I'm teaching them by example, unfortunately the neighbour caught me with my pants down...literally...I mean I tried to bury it under her hibiscus so it wouldn't show but there is a limitation to what you can do with your pants around your ankles with the sun in your eyes and I nearly did my back in scent marking her geranium...but anyway I know you won't mind the bit of gardening...what's that nurse, my medication is due...

Eileen, if you want a cutting feel free. Send me a PM and you can pop over, no probs.

Hold on, that ginger tom is back again...how far up that tree can I reach...

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

AND THE WINNER IS...EGGY!!!

I think that's it, Eggy, Apple Blossom.

You realise your prize for giving me the correct answer is the honour of cutting the bush back; and whilst you're at it you might as well mow the lawn as well; then there's the side garden that needs weeding, but don't worry I'll make you a cuppa as you go along...mind you you'll have to work around the cat's poo, I've tried training them to do it in other people's gardens but no luck so far, I'm teaching them by example, unfortunately the neighbour caught me with my pants down...literally...I mean I tried to bury it under her hibiscus so it wouldn't show but there is a limitation to what you can do with your pants around your ankles with the sun in your eyes and I nearly did my back in scent marking her geranium...but anyway I know you won't mind the bit of gardening...what's that nurse, my medication is due...

Eileen, if you want a cutting feel free. Send me a PM and you can pop over, no probs.

Hold on, that ginger tom is back again...how far up that tree can I reach...

How come I have never noticed this bush before. With that amount of flowers from spring thru summer,good growth & evergreen I would have expected most gardeners would use it as an alternative to hedging.

I will get Wilf to come and - slice the bush down - drive the turds away and you can give him any spare tee you have. He likes a herbiscuit with his tea.

[Symptoms]

KeithL wrote: "... unfortunately the neighbour caught me with my pants down...literally ..." and "... but there is a limitation to what you can do with your pants around your ankles with the sun in your eyes and I nearly did my back in ...".

So now we know what you're up to when in the garden with your telescope ... and it 'ain't astronomy! (For new visitors here KeithL has posted in the past about his stargazing hobby).

[keith lockey]

KeithL wrote: "... unfortunately the neighbour caught me with my pants down...literally ..." and "... but there is a limitation to what you can do with your pants around your ankles with the sun in your eyes and I nearly did my back in ...".

So now we know what you're up to when in the garden with your telescope ... and it 'ain't astronomy! (For new visitors here KeithL has posted in the past about his stargazing hobby).

Honest, Your Honour, I was merely instructing Tiddles on how to have a Number Two under the acacia and that really was a nine inch refractor in my hands...what's that...life imprisonment at a Penal colony on Mars. Beam me up Scotty.

[mercuryg]

This thread didn't quite live up to my expectations. I was thinking of a different kind of bush.

[keith lockey]

This thread didn't quite live up to my expectations. I was thinking of a different kind of bush.

Would that be Kate, Merc? or George W, or Basil, or maybe the burning variety or a bird in the, or maybe an old bull and wotsit.

I can't think of anything else off hand!!!

[John Fox (foxy)]

A couple of years back I went to Northern Ireland with two mates to watch the North West 200 motorbike racing, and because the wives had let us out on five days parole, we decided to take them a little pressy home. The Bushmills Museum and Distillery was nearby so we decided to get each of them a bottle of Malt. Now my mate who likes to think he knows everything, tells us that all the Bushmill Malts have the word Bush in their name but he couldn't find the one he wanted, so he went to the checkout girl and asked if she had a Black Bush. For some reason he was asked to leave, and we're still trying to figure out why, maybe if I get Keith Lockey on the phone we can work it out together. :)

[keith lockey]

A couple of years back I went to Northern Ireland with two mates to watch the North West 200 motorbike racing, and because the wives had let us out on five days parole, we decided to take them a little pressy home. The Bushmills Museum and Distillery was nearby so we decided to get each of them a bottle of Malt. Now my mate who likes to think he knows everything, tells us that all the Bushmill Malts have the word Bush in their name but he couldn't find the one he wanted, so he went to the checkout girl and asked if she had a Black Bush. For some reason he was asked to leave, and we're still trying to figure out why, maybe if I get Keith Lockey on the phone we can work it out together. :)

Obvious, Foxy, it was a racial remark - "Black" bush. Now if your mate had asked if she had an evergreen bush or a spreading lobelia bush he would have been all right.