I got an email on Tuesday from Tim, a good friend of mine, which came with this image of a much-loved flower belonging to his grandma. The only problem is, she doesn't know what it is.
I have some sympathy with this. For a start, I didn't recognise this bizarre specimen myself. I guessed it was a monocot growing from a bulb, which rules out about three-quarters of the plant world; but that still left about 59,000 of them to wade through.
My luck came when I took a chance that Tim's grandma had bought something relatively common, which I just didn't recognise out of stupidity.
I picked up the nearest bulb catalogue (as I am classy, this was Avon Bulbs' autumn offering) and by page 34 I had a firm identification, with Avon describing the flower as "extraordinary, composed of a plume of many purple strands giving a rather fluffy appearance. A slightly weird addition." Well at least they admit it.
The general problem of the mystery plant spreads wider than this, though. There's nothing more frustrating to me than a garden where desirable plants remain unlabelled - though Typing on the Void's Pete Free completely disagrees. And elsewhere in the blogosphere, authors wrestle with the time-honoured problem of no longer knowing quite exactly what it is that they originally planted.
I don't know what to do about the mystery plants in my garden. The names of two roses I always used to remember seem to have recently gone the way of the fairies, and the plants I bought at Beth Chatto's in May without bothering to label (there you have to Do It Yourself: like at IKEA, it keeps the prices down) are left similarly nameless.
My only solution is to do what Tim did: use the internet to email a picture to someone who might know what you are on about.
*For those longing to buy the slightly weird plant, it's Muscari comosum plumosum. And please feel free to give yourself about 100 bonus points if you knew what it was without help. I take my hat off to you.
This is a really good subject. I hate seeing 'garden centre' type labels hanging off plants a year after they've been planted, but on the other hand, it's frustrating if you admire something and the owner can't remember what it is. Or, if you are the owner, having to tell people what the plant is every five minutes. And even if you buy posh slate or oak labels, it makes everything feel like a botanical exhibit rather than a garden. What do the taste police say?
Posted by: Victoria | Thursday, 19 June 2008 at 04:12 PM
Keep a garden journal with rough details of when, what, where from, and location you have planted it in for personal use? Works for me as I age and things just seem to get lost in my mind.
If you are the owner who opens have a plan and planting list? Mottisfont do this for the Rose gardens, and charge £1.50 a pop. Only the roses are listed too!
Posted by: Zoë | Thursday, 19 June 2008 at 08:29 PM
Showed this to my 7-year-old son and he identified it as a lilac.
Posted by: jakers | Friday, 20 June 2008 at 10:13 AM
that boy will go far.
The problem with planting lists is that they have to be updated, and taking some garden bloggers as a test case, they buy new plants every week.
I noticed another mystery plant posting on Carol's (May Dreams Gardens)
http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/2008/06/blooms-and-books.html
I think that writing them down in a book is a great idea. The only problem of course is remembering to do it. It's always the one thing you didn't write down you want to identify later. I also wish a lot that I'd written down where I bought things - especially bulbs - so that if they turn out to be rubbish I can avoid buying from there again.
Posted by: emma townshend | Saturday, 21 June 2008 at 07:12 AM
To label or not to label, that is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler to suffer
The mild embarrassment of being unable to answer the question
Or to have dinky bits of expensively engraved slate that always break or get confused
Cluttering up the joint.
Personally I would rather stumble over a plant name than have my garden looking like a botanical garden: but then the important thing to remember is if somebody is asking you a question then you can be pretty sure that they do not know the answer....
(my apologies to WS, that was pretty unforgivable)
Posted by: JamesA-S | Monday, 23 June 2008 at 04:43 PM
I have spent ages trying to work out who you meant by WS. I just got it. I feel like the dopiest fool around.
Posted by: emma townshend | Wednesday, 25 June 2008 at 07:49 PM
I was always taught to burry the label (with just a little peeking out) directly behind the plant. If it's a plastic label and written in pencil it won't fade or rub off. Do this as you are planting and you'll always know the name, even if it means digging about a bit.
Posted by: alys Fowler | Monday, 30 June 2008 at 07:38 PM
A double classy answer. I do think that even with the best will (and system) in the world, though, sometimes the labels are going to get lost.
Like I just labelled really carefully all my different colours of gladioli. The problem was the local squirrel got into the cold frame and moved them all around into different pots. They all seem to have come up, but they are now in mixed pots, which they definitely weren't when I planted them.
PS please don't despise me for saying "all my different colours of gladioli." Everyone has a terribly weakness, that's mine.
Posted by: emma townshend | Monday, 30 June 2008 at 08:50 PM
I usually just put the labels from plants I've bought into a big envelope, in (very) roughly chronological order. Usually the sight of the name and a rough idea of when I bought it will be enough to connect the right plant to the right name ... as for all the things that were already in my garden when I moved in, well, I've dug most of them up now. Blasted kniphophias, they were a snail palace, I tell you.
Posted by: Jane Perrone | Tuesday, 01 July 2008 at 09:07 AM