We just moved to a new (old) house and the bushes & greenery in the garden are unfamiliar to me. I am also told that a very large tree in the front lawn is also very rare - but the person who told me couldn't remember what it was called. Can somebody give me a link to a very easy to use plant identification site - I tried e-flora BC but I have problems finding things on it. Thanks a bunch!
If you can post a photo of a branch with several leaves on it, I am sure someone will know what it is.
Thanks - but it's not just one plant - it is the majority of the plants on a 3/4 acre lot - I need some kind of encyclopedia to identify them all.
This question pops up from time to time - there isn't one site that works for everything, unfortunately. If the plants are native (are they?), then there are a few books you could be directed to - Plants of Coastal BC or Trees and Shrubs of BC - however, if some are cultivated, then the task gets at least tenfold more difficult, if not more. A book like the A-Z encyclopedia could be helpful, but trying to find your one plant in a book with twenty thousand (?) plants can be frustrating.
Some of the plants are native - don't know what the others are, that's the problem! Thanks for the help anyway - was just hoping there was some online resource where I could identify them all.
I think Kengroom's thread where he posts a couple of new ones every day is working well, better than a new thread every time. But identifying the plants yourself would be a good project - it's what I would do. But I would use books, not the internet. One of the best resources would be the old Reader's Digest plant encyclopedia, not the new A-Z - I don't have a citation for it at the moment but can find it. This was I think one of the only books that grouped plants by flower colour and plant size. It's the perfect sleuthing book for a tolerable selection of plants, and I'd bet you could find one on www.abebooks.com. Similarly, a book called Trees in Canada has trees grouped by leaf type and arrangement, so it is a good identification guide. It might not have some horticultural treasures, though, which your tree may be. The other thing you can do, if you're a patient soul, is get a book on shrubs and a book on perennials (the Expert series by DG Hessayon is good, available anywhere including garden centres) and perhaps one on trees (borrow from library maybe) and leaf through them until you start to recognize things. In these books things will usually be listed alphabetically by latin or common name, or they will be grouped by the conditions they like - sun, shade, moist, etc. Finally, your local garden centre/nursery or an online plant catalogue with lots of pictures (eg Jeffries Nursery, T&T seeds, etc). Just browse around and see what you recognize.
I have managed to identify some of the plants, but the tree still has me stumped (no pun intended!). The needles grow in tufts & cover the topsides of the branches. The cones are about the size & shape of a duck egg & held upright. Instead of "scales" they have a cylindrical pattern. The tree(s) (3 grow from the same spot) looks to be very old and is certainly very tall. Can somebody please tell me it's name?
They probably think it's a Cedar-of-Lebanon, thus the "very rare." Those are scarce here, whereas Deodar cedar is common.
How can you tell the difference between the Lebanon & Deodar - having looked both of them up I don't see the distinction. I haven't seen this particular cedar before although we have many cedars in BC - I have to say it is a very beautiful tree though, wish we had more!
Lebanon Cedar - needles shorter 1-2.5cm long (rarely 3cm); cone scales more-or-less smooth. Branchlets usually level at the tips ("level lebanon", though sometimes drooping). Deodar Cedar - needles longer 2.5-5cm long (rarely 6cm); cone scales with a horizontal ridge, particularly in the upper part of the cone (clearly visible in your pic). Branchlets usually drooping at the tips ("drooping deodar").