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My daughter just bought a house in Seattle. She moved from Tennessee and is more familiar with East Coast plantings. She is looking for help in identifying some plants in her backyard. The first three photos are the same plant. The last one I think is a rhododendron. Any help?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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When were the pictures taken? The correctly identified Rhododendron keeps it's leaves all year, of course, but do the other plants have full leaves now, or were they taken last summer/fall? If leafed out now, my guess would be Oregon Wintergreen.
You could have her take a small branch with leaves to Swanson's Nursery on 15th Ave near NW 96th and someone there should be able to do a positive ID and give any care instructions.
I agree about visiting a local nursery. We moved to SW WA from MO, and I’ve had to trek into a local place for info on multiple occasions. The folks at a full service nursery shoukd be able to help you with a multitude of things.
The first three - It's an Overgrownicus Treehedgicus. If it were mine, and a privacy screen might be wanted there, I might hack it off at about three feet tall, and see if it comes back pretty. If it does... it can stay. Otherwise, cut it off at the ground.
The last is a rhodie, as has already been confirmed.
Re: the first 3 pictures, the leaves and newest growth stems on that plant are fuzzy all over if that helps with identification. I think it's some kind of viburnum. My guess is Leatherleaf viburnum (viburnum rhytidophyllum) or a hybrid, perhaps leatherleaf crossed with some other kind of viburnum.
It will be a lot easier to identify once it produces flowers. If you look at the 3rd picture at the end of one of the stems you'll see a new flower bud cluster forming to produce new flowers this spring. That flower bud cluster is identical to leatherleaf flower bud clusters.
Once those flowers have bloomed a sample of the flowers and leaves can be taken into a nursery for identification.
When were the pictures taken? The correctly identified Rhododendron keeps it's leaves all year, of course, but do the other plants have full leaves now, or were they taken last summer/fall? If leafed out now, my guess would be Oregon Wintergreen.
You could have her take a small branch with leaves to Swanson's Nursery on 15th Ave near NW 96th and someone there should be able to do a positive ID and give any care instructions.
with #4 being some kind of rhododendron. #3 definitely gives me and Quercus/oak vibe, with the fuzzy stuff; #1 (that's a rhodie in the lower right foreground, right?) said "Buddleia" to me, but on closer inspection, of course, no. #2 (at first glance said, "princess flower", but, again, nope) and #3 could be the same thing and look a bit like a Buckthorn... maybe. As said above, need more info (flower details) to do anything more than, you know, an educated guess, really. ... Which is (obviously) fun for me.
I was going to say scheflera for the third one. Now I'm puzzled. What's the difference between a scheflera and a Rhodie?
The two are quite different. Scheffleras are native to the S. Pacific; Australia, New Guinea, Java, etc. Family Araliaceae. I think there are a couple of cultivars used in the Pac NW, but the leaf growth habit in the photos doesn't match. The leaflets are usually in a palmate "umbrella" .
Rhodies and Azaleas are in the heath family: Ericaceae.
Last edited by Parnassia; 02-25-2020 at 03:17 PM..
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I think I agree...
