Topic: I.D. Please

[Emagggie]

I have admired both of these daily on my dog walk. The shrub with orange ball type flowers is huge and has been flowering constantly over a long period.....and I want one, so it would be good to know what I'm looking for  ;D

The green tree looks like a maple to me, the seed pods were a delicate shade of pink when they were flowers. As it is in no-mans land, I helped myself to a twig and stuck it in a pot. I'm clueless as to how to treat it so it lives. Any hints, please?

[Baaaaaaaa]

I think the first is a Buddleia globosa. The leaves certainly look buddleia like.

The second looks like a Sycamore. The red leaf stalks are a good clue. If bindweed is Satan under the soil, then Sycamore is Satan in the sky. Spreads everywhere via its little 'helicopter' seed pods. Almost as evil as euopean Ash (which also has hilecopters)
 

[Amazin]

Agree - Buddleia globosa and Sycamore.

[Emagggie]

 Thanks,Baaaaaaaa, yes deffo red stalks and helicopter seed pods-might have to bin that one. Off to seek the buddleia though. ;D
Thanks for confimation, Amazin.

[Deb P]

I have admired both of these daily on my dog walk. The shrub with orange ball type flowers is huge and has been flowering constantly over a long period.....and I want one, so it would be good to know what I'm looking for  ;D

Why not ask for a cutting or two?

Buddleia Globosa is very easy to propagate from cuttings, I have two very large shrubs that I grew in this way when two broken bits happened to fall into my pocket on a walk through an abandoned manor house gardens one day...(now turned into a horrible new housing estate I'm afraid, and the gardens decimated..)

[Toadspawn]

If you want the B. globosa it grows very easily from cuttings. Just break a bit off and stick it in a pot or the ground and it will grow. They will become very large bushes if left un checked. However, very pretty and very attractive to bees.

With the Sycamore (Acer) collect the seeds when they are ripe and sow them and they usually germinate. Have a look around the area you might find a few self sown trees which you can dig up as it is on waste land.

[triffid]

Adding my vote to the ID of the first one as buddleia globosa.

But the second... looking at the leaves, I don't think it's a sycamore. They look too deeply divided and narrow-lobed. More like a japanese maple...? Best guess from me would be the smooth Japanese maple.
Many of the japanese acers do have green leaves with red stalks -- have a look at the one at the bottom left of this collection:  http://www.greergardens.com/acer_color_pages.htm

Bottom line is size, of course. Even as saplings, sycamores have that 'reaching for the sky' look about them.  ::) Japanese maples are way smaller and their branch system is much more spindly.
*re-reads Emaggie's post and squints at picture again*
Ah, and sycamore flowers are green, whereas the smooth Japanese maples' are red, like the ones you spotted.

[Emagggie]

Triffid, I think you are right.I've just brought a leaf in for closer inspection! Thanks for the link, I will investigate further

[triffid]

Umm. So Japanese maple but which one?
Maybe a bit too toothy to be the smooth maple after all? (picture here from the Collins Tree Guide)
But your leaf does look as if it has fine pink margins, so could it be A. palmatum 'Kagiri-Nishiki' (the one at the bottom left in the Greers Garden page I posted yesterday)? If so, Collins says: "five-lobed leaves with fine pink margins (fading creamy-white); tall-growing but readily reverting."
Collins also puts the height of Japanese maples as "up to 15m". Not tiny, till you look up Big Brother sycamore and see it tops out at 38m.  :o

[Emagggie]

The beauty of this tree was the pink edging on the leaves Triffid, and the delicate tiny pink flowers which have now become seed pods, so it does look likely. As to the size, well I think I may have moved on to finer quarters before it gets so tall ;D

[kenkew]

 This pic I took last year shows a peacock butterfly on Buddleia Davidii but to the right is the leaf of the globosa.

[Emagggie]

I have bought one this week (buddleia Globosa) and it's planting place is to fill the gap next to the Davidii left by a no-show Canna.

[triffid]

Then good luck with the maple cuttings; sounds like a beautiful tree.  :)

[Emagggie]

Looking a bit sad, will take more tomorrow. Thanks, everyone. :D

[Garden Manager]

buddleia globuosa is a big plant. i had one originaly from a rooted cutting someone gave to me. I treated it like a davidii but it always grew very tall with the flowers right at the top. I later learnt that it should be pruned differently to the davidii types more commonly grown. However i still couldnt get it into shape and it was later 'replaced' with something a bit more manageable.

If you have plenty of room or can find a way of keeping it in check (good luck!) then grow it. if not then think again!

[Emagggie]

Too late came the cry........I did actually decide to put it elsewhere, and there is more room, but your comments are noted GA, many thanks.