Garius

Those are Chinese elms. They are really trees, but are often planted as hedges, since they look fine sheared. If you stop shearing, however, they eventually become tall trees (actually, they get to be trees quickly - they are fast growers). Are yours in a straight line, on the property line, by chance? If so, they may have been a hedge in their younger days. The rest of the trees in the hedge may have died, or just been removed.

They are a pretty weak tree, and will lose limbs in strong winds, or if it snows before the leaves have dropped.

Thanks for the info, John - that's very helpful. The forecast is for a low of 5 on Thursday night, so maybe I should bring the plant in that night.

I don't know the variety - the neighbour that gave me the cutting says it's white. He got his from a friend, and neither of them knew it was a brugmansia - I figured that out from his description of the flowers and other clues, but now I'm sure. It's still pretty small, but I'm hoping for some big growth this summer and maybe some flowers.

John, your garden is beautiful! A lot of effort went into getting it that way, I'm sure. You're not too far from me - I live in London, Ontario.

Your Brugmansia is wonderful. I'm new to brugmansias, having been given a cutting last spring. It grew a little in the summer, then I brought it in for the winter. It liked it better inside, in a cool North-facing window (the only window I could put it in). It lost all of its outside leaves, but grew new inside ones. Then it got spider mites and after I sprayed it with soap, it lost all of those leaves. But it grew new ones. Then another round of spider mites and soap and lost leaves. I just took it outside last weekend, so hopefully I'm done with the spider mites and it can keep its leaves all summer. LOL. I am interested, however, in what you do to overwinter yours and whether you do anything special in the spring to acclimatize them to the outdoors.

I agree with cwheat000 - I think it is petasides (Butterbur) too. And I also agree with the comment about containing it. I have it growing beside my driveway and this spring it pushed up through the asphalt. It's spreading along the length of the driveway in a patch between the driveway and a fence (and I noticed it coming up in my neighbour's yard on the other side of the fence). In another couple of years it should meet some obedient plant spreading from the other direction. I wonder which will win the war. It's possible they could even coexist - should be interesting.

It's actually a very nice tree (except for those thorns). It blooms in the spring with white, very fragrant wisteria-like flowers. You can smell the tree a block away, if the wind is blowing your way.

I love your first sentence. Being consumed by succulents must have been an exciting experience! Since you're still here to write about it, I assume they regurgitated you afterwards. ;)

Very nice combination, but even better is that I now know that butterbur is the name of the great plant growing in my garden! I got it at a plant exchange, but couldn't find it in any of my books. Now I know what conditions it likes, although by pure accident, I seem to have planted it in an ideal location. Thanks for the serendipitous identification.

Just wondering what a "Rouge's Gallery" is? I know that rouge is the French word for red, so would a Rouge's Gallery be a display of red pictures? I'll have to click the link and see. ;-)

(I assume you meant Rogue's Gallery. Just a little misplaced "u". I love your articles and couldn't help poking a little fun too.)

Looks like a wonderful book. I sometimes plan my combinations on paper, trying to get a mix of textures, foliage size and form, and bloom times. Other times, I just wing it directly in the garden, but using the same principles. Sometimes things work out fine, but other times I have to tinker with the design to get it right.

A few great combinations have resulted by accident from moving to a new house, and moving plants into a "holding" bed, with only a vague regard to design.

Yes, I agree - looks like black nightshade.

It was the explosive seeds that gave it away. One of the common names is touch-me-not, which refers to the projectile seeds. Kids love that.

Your blooms appear larger than usual, and it is a nice looking plant, so I would definitely keep it around. Although it may be invasive in some areas, I would just watch it and see what it does in your garden. The wild jewelweed that I'm familiar with likes damp shade, so yours probably would too, and wouldn't spread much in other conditions. The seedlings (and mature plants) are pretty easy to pull, so I wouldn't worry too much.

I thought it looked like jewelweed, but wasn't aware that jewelweed came in pink. So I googled, and sure enough, it does come in pink. Here's a picture (scroll down on the page)
http://huckleberrydays.blogspot.com/2008/09/invasive-jewelweeds-policemans-helmet.html

I think it might be a pawpaw. Asimina triloba. Here's some photos:
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/astr4546.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/astr.html&usg=__iTmVDDdrDqEsPgvMc761-iBoPkA=&h=263&w=350&sz=32&hl=en&start=18&um=1&tbnid=M1pCXLIJZZSnmM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpawpaw%2Btree%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1

It looks like Buckthorn to me. Non-native and invasive. It will persistently sprout from the stump if you cut it to the ground, so dig it out if you can. If you keep it, it does get lots of black berries that the birds like, but then you will get millions of little buckthorns all over the place. It's a problem in the woodlands around where I live, since it will take over the understory (it grows to be a small shrubby tree, about 10-15 feet tall). At one house where I lived, I naturalized the back third of the yard and spent a lot of time trying to get rid of buckthorn. Can you tell it's not my favourite plant?

Wow - that's quite a bloom! The wild ginger I have seen has non-descript brown blooms that hang under the leaves. You have to go looking and lift the leaves to even see them. Lucky you!

Just to avoid confusion, Sweet Woodruff is *not* another name for this plant. Sweet woodruff is another plant. I have both in my garden and love them both.

The flowers in the second photo are actually tulips, not peonies. Beautiful all the same, though.