I am hoping that someone will know what some of these plants are. We recently bought a home (November) in southern Indiana. What little vegetation we had was all dead for the winter (very small yard). Now that we have had some mild days we've been trying to clean up the yard (hadn't been mowed in so long there are trees growing in it, lol) and we found that we had a bunch of plants that we have no idea what they are AND a huge poison ivy problem on the back side of the house. Knowing that there is at the very least poison ivy out there makes me terrified to even touch any of the other plants to dispose of them. I know what my rose bush, peony bush and yew trees are and I haven't been able to clear anything else out because I'm afraid. I am from Florida and New York and I am not familiar with any of the local plants. I hope that someone here might be able to help me identify what some of them are so that I can dispose of them. Everything seems to not only have shown up in the last month but grown HUGE overnight! Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it!
parthenocissus quinquefolia aka virginia creeper is invasive. paulownia gets BIG, you'll want to move it somewhere away from the foundation! ailanthus aka tree of heaven is another invasive and you'll want to get rid of it asap.
Thanks! I will get to pulling first thing tomorrow if the weather stays good. Everything here seems to grow so fast except for the plants I WANT to grow! lol. Is it possibly that's not Hollyhock? I looked it up and it sayd the hollyhock leaves are 4-5 inches and it has flowers. Mine has no flowers and those leaves are close to a foot across if I were to lay them flat
Leaves on the Hollyhock basal rosette can be over 10 inches wide. Only the bloom spike (which comes later) has ~4" inch leaves. http://www.kswildflower.org/details.php?flowerID=475 http://www.naz.edu:9000/~grnhouse/Alcea/hollyhock300.jpg
i've not grown hollyhock myself yet (just got some seeds tho ;) ). i do know they have just the leaves first for a while and then bloom a bit later in the spring. just noticed your comment about the poison ivy... i'm not allergic to it, so, touching it or other plants that might have the oil on it isn't a concern, really. even still, i take precautions (just in case) when i have to deal with getting rid of it. i use gloves - those disposable plastic types and i make sure i have long sleeves on, too. if i can, i put a plastic bag over the plant before attempting to dig it up or pull it up. poison ivy is one of the few things i'll use chemicals on, too. others are pokeweed, thistle and creeping charlie - otherwise i just pull or dig the nasty stuff up, even if it takes repeated times to get rid of it. what i've done with the p. ivy is put a tiny bit of gas on it - right at the base of it so it goes right on the roots. i'm talking no more than a couple tablespoons worth and it's just to the roots (so, please, no grief about it - i have kids that are extremely allergic to it so i have to do something with it). after a couple days the plant dies and i pull it up.
I don't know if I have a bad reaction to the PI or not and I'd rather not find out! lol I know the neighbors think I'm insane out there on a hot day covered neck to toe in thick fabric, which I can only do for short periods of time, but it works. I sprayed it, because when I looked it up online it seemed like the only real option I found. It has started to take effect, but very slowly, plus we will have a forcast of nice days, I go spray it, and then it rains. geesh. there is about a 10 foot by 5 foot section at the back of the house (where a million years ago there was a door that is now sealed up) on the side that is so thick with it I have just reached a point where I can't do anything with it. I tried shoveling it down to the bare dirt... which seems to have worked in the areas that I was actually able to do that in, but the closer to the center I got the more it is like a very thick mat that I even have trouble cutting through with the sharp shovel. I can't move the ground layer to even get down to the dirt in the rest of the area. When I was pulling up the asphalt behind it to regrade the dirt and get it ready for landscaping I found shoots of it growning UNDER the asphalt, all yellow and curled in on itself but when I followed it back it was part of the poison ivy. It's insane. The PO told us she was sure it had been erradicated, obviously it has not. Thanks for the hollyhock info too! It just seemed so big for what they were describing. When I look at it I just feel like it should have cabbage patch kids hanging off it for some reason! lol. I wonder if I should keep it if it might grow flowers one day! lol. We were blessed with so little yard karma here anything that isn't going to harm us looks like a keeper. lol. We have pics of the home when it was built in 1912, there was a large beautiful garden on that side of the house... now it's a parking lot for the retirement home behind us.
if the p-ivy has been allowed to do it's thing for years and years, it's going to be quite a task to get rid of it. just keep working at it in small increments and you'll get rid of it eventually. you do need to treat the roots though, to truly get rid of it. and it may still come back from the roots - even a couple years later; especially if the roots are very well established and it sounds like that's what you're dealing with. reactions to the oils don't usually occur with the first contact, and sometimes not even after 2 or 3 contacts with it (and sometimes it never happens). the body needs to be 'primed' first before it reacts with the rash and that's why i take precautions. i've not had the rash yet, and probably never will if i haven't by now, yet, i'm just not chancing it!! yes, it WILL grow under/over/around whatever is in its way so it doesn't surprise me that you found it underneath the concrete!! definitely keep the hollyhocks - they're gorgeous when they bloom!!!
I wonder what color it will be? It's so exciting! We had one ugly bush that turned out to be pretty white peonies. We had a very old rose bush that was covered in PI that I transplanted to the front but we had a long dry spell and it started to die, seems to have stalled the dying now but never bloomed. We are going to paint our house a medium sage with white trim and want to do all white, dark purple and dark pink landscaping. I think it would go nicely with the house color.
after transplanting, it can take roses up to three years to get fully back on their feet again...so, don't give up hope on that rose bush yet!! i agree, peony can be quite drab until they bloom!!! mine finally bloomed last year (had transplanted from the neighbors yard) and i see buds on almost all of it this year - that will be a very pretty show!! i love the color pattern you want to do - it's basically what i've got going. i have mostly purples (light, dark, everything in between), with some pink and white flowers added in...more white, as it turns out than pink (need to work on switching that out as i would rather have more pink). i've also got some orange daylilys...just for something a little different...and they make a nice contrast with the purple...
