Does this plant look familiar to anyone?

Hi PNW peeps! I posted this in the identification forum but haven't had a reply. This bush has sprouted up since removing the blackberries. The leaves look like it might be lilac?

Totally lookz like lilac to me, Lynn, with the reddish new growth. They are quite quick to take advantage of any breathing room.

Oh good! There are so many plants coming up now that the blackberries are gone, I'm having a lot of fun finding and identifying them. Discovered a huge batch of wild roses, an elderberry, some columbine, raspberries, wild strawberry and a hydrangea so far. And two more I need to take pics of and post, haven't figured them out yet.

And weren't you the one asking about the miracle fuchsia? Yes, we have those out here. Mine is 6' tall ... in hemlock shade!

summerkid where were you when I lived in Lincoln City? I just moved to TX in Feb. I brought lots of my plants in pots with me and most are doing well here, left a bunch too. I sure miss Lincoln City. My fuchsia like it here so far but I have them in the shade all day and water them well. One of them has gone crazy doubling in size from when I had it there.

Yes, that was me about the fuschia. Mine are 6 feet also, so beautiful! These were completely covered in blackberries!

This message was edited Jun 12, 2013 10:03 PM

Jokenna, I've been here for several yearz! And sad that I didn't make as many friendz as quickly as expected.

COME BACK!!!

I got my start from a neighbor. Two of them had big beautiful ones. I just stuffed them into a little old plastic garbage can that I had put some dirt in. They looked like they had just dried up and died. They set out all summer and winter in April we got a bad freeze and both neighbors lost theirs. It was very sad. Then a month later mine sprang to life and have been in that pgc for a year until I planted them here in TX. They love it and have just taken off.

Hi lynnala, I have been thinking about your picture for awhile and it bugs me. I don't think that is a lilac. It might be japanese knotweed. Try to get it identified by your local extention office. If it is knotweed it is on the noxious weedlist and a bugger to irradicate. It is done mostly by inoculation by the county. Hope it isn't that.

If it is noted the extension office can send someone to kill it for you. At least that's what they did for my daughter Otis, Or

Oregon Co-op links:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/find-us
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/tillamook/
http://ceoas.oregonstate.edu/ (Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station)

I am not familiar with knotweed, Willow, but all the images I found via Google show plants with alternating leaves, not paired ones.

Hi Willowwind; thanks for thinking of me. I haven't checked on this bush for awhile, tomorrow I will go down and see what's going on with it. As summerkid said, I don't think the leaves are alternating like japanese knotweed, so fingers crossed! I'll report back after having a close look tomorrow.

Okay, here are some more pics. Don't think it's knotweed as it doesn't have alternating leaves. There are tiny buds at the base of the leaves.

Try posting it in the Plant ID form

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/plantid/all/

Hi Jokenna; I did post it there earlier and have added the updated photos. No ID yet.

Yay, Resin just identified this as a lilac.

Those last pictures proved it to me also.

Beautiful pic willowwind! I'm so looking forward to finding out what the bloom color will be, but I don't think there will be blooms this year. The poor things were buried for many so years under blackberries and need to get their mojo back!

There is however one brave and hardy little butterfly bush that popped up after the blackberries were removed and it is now blooming happily away amidst the rubble!

Sounds like you hit the jackbox with all the neat shrubs.

I think new plants will continue to pop up as time goes by. It's amazing what we are uncovering. Someone had a very nice garden here once upon a time.

Oh my goodness. The years fighting the J. knotweed.... I garden organically, and don't know if the inoculation thing falls under organic. But I don't CARE! Mild-mannered even if crazy-colored gardener goes screaming into the night, wailing like a lonesome hyena and pulling out her hair...

I know this is a side shoot of the convo here, but accidental learning is such a precious thing.

I hope you get the colors you like lynnala. Must be kind of like a year-long pregnancy!

Turtle

LOL Turtle, what an image!

I know nothing about the inoculation method, but I assume it means injecting the plant with herbicide rather than spraying. Since you garden organically, perhaps when the plants are dying back after inoculation, you could pull them out, bag them, and take them to hazardous waste. I wonder if the county extension helps with this whole procedure in addition to the initial "kill" to prevent hazardous materials from getting into the environment any more than they already are.

Hello Lynnala et al. .. It fun reading about all the discoveries you are making after you got rid of the blackberries. The big question is, how did you get rid of the blackberries !! I have tons of them everywhere and I am at my wits end trying to figure out how to clear them up.

any ideas and suggestions on how you succeeded would be great

Thanks
Vishal

13Turtles: doesn't matter what color they are, just the fact that they survived the blackberries is amazing. And yes, great analogy, a year-long pregnancy! The lilacs are growing like crazy, but not a single bud. Maybe in spring...

yadavgard: we hired a blackberry slayer first. He came in and cut everything to the ground. Cost us $1,000 for 1/3 acre. It was a huge job because they were up to our second story deck! And now my husband has been out there all summer digging up the roots. He just digs and digs and digs. I've been advised that if you just keep yanking the sprouts out you will eventually damage them to the point where they don't return, but we are getting a head start by digging out the roots, some of which are absolutely monstrous! But it's working. After the rains everything is growing again, but very few blackberries are popping up. Whew!

LOL
Great idea about the hazardous waste, mhf. Much f the J.K. is growing under the house ((no basement; crawl space only big enough for a child)) but if county won't come collect their kill I can protect myself and PULL. If it really happens of course. There is a tenant on the other side who goes out every single day and pulls whatever he can. Bless his heart.

Lynnala, you and your husband deserve congratulations! How cool that blackberry slayers exist. I bet they have plenty of work.

Vishal: good luck!

The blackberries are indeed beatable if you get some muscle for the initial attack.

But I've been here four yearz & about to declare uncle. I just can't (won't) keep up this big property in such a lush climate. Jack's last day at work is Monday & he will fly in Thursday & we'll start making decisions.

I never thot I'd get so discouraged with garden maintenance. But I just don't want to spend my life hacking away at the landscape.

It is easy to get discouraged when there is no one to help with heavy stuff. I just got another nephew to move some shrubs for me. He is going to do my rose bed and prune some stuff. His job is keeping up a park for the county full time, so he is knowledgable. Right now I'm feeling overwhelmed as well.

Not everyone around here feels the same way.
My new guardrail.
In the new flowerbed.
The other side.
And a lily

Aw Willowwind, what a beautiful cat. We have two who look like that, ours are Maine Coons. Summer, I can imagine how discouraging it can be. My plan is to plant as much as I can to squeeze out the new blackberries and to pull them out as soon as they raise their heads.

Good point about discouragement when having no extra muscle. I feel it too.

Willowwind those are lovely beds. My kind of color. Your stone looks lighter colored than what I'm used to seeing - is it something special?

Thanks guys! I am looking into hiring somebody to chop all the backberries to the ground.
I tried pulling out some of the roots and they are monstrous too!!
I suppose I just have to keep at it.
:-)

I don't know what those stones are. Maybe cheap. I had some older ones that looked weathered. The guys put those on the bottom. If these don't darken over the winter I'm going to smear them with buttermild and moss.

UPDATE: They are purple!

This message was edited Apr 21, 2014 11:38 PM

Congratulations, it's a purple!

And a lovely shade of it too.

I do feel rather like a proud mom! :-)

I'm glad! After all, there was a lot of labor involved wasn't there?

Well, the labor has all been in removing blackberries and thimbleberries to uncover the lilacs!

Exactly! And to end up with such cute babies...