Plants in disguise!

not the fogiest barbara lol but look pretty in frost, it was like that day before yesterday here and the trees looked frozen in time, so beautifull covered in white icy frost, it was a thick icy fog over night, took your breath away, i thought one was scabiousa if iv spelt it right lol

I'm afraid I'm hopeless Spritz. All I can guess is No 2 Agapanthus! Beautiful photos, it's lovely to see there is beauty to be found in such cold weather. Snow went at the weekend here and very frosty since until today when it cleared from all the trees and grass....still very cold though.

Incredible pics....amazing heavy frost! We've had lots of the white stuff as you know, but no frost like this. I love to see the trees all white with it...but not my garden plants!! The potted plants in my new shady spot are covered in ice. It looks like snow of course, but when you pick it up it comes off in great lumps, bringing leaves with it...not good. I'll just leave it well alone until the thaw.....should come some time in April....lol...x

same as above for me too Barbara,but your photos are brilliant,no more snow or frost here just icy streets keeping us all in.:o(

They've all had a second lease of life albeit in mono colour.

The whole garden and beyond is black and white, Heron!

I won't tell you the answers until everyone who wants to has had a guess, then I'll edit the blog and add photos of the flowers as they were.

Glad you enjoyed looking at them - and no, Sandra, it's not - sorry! Lily's right, though. :-))

great idea spritz but too hard for me, even the individual blades of grass had a heavy layer of frost on them here
your garden and the plants look beautiful, i really liked number 7 and 9
i think you had agapanthus and buddlea a grass and a type of daisy??

Such great fun, Spritz! :-)) Don't really have a clue, as they are so well-disguised......

(1) Echinops or Eryngium?

(2)Agapanthus?

(3) Verbena bonariensis?

(4) ?????????

(5) Looks like a Rudbeckia or Helenium?

(6)Hebe?

(7)Perovskia?

(8)Pittisporum "Tom Thumb" ?

(9) Cortaderia (Pampas Grass)?

(10)Hmm, now I think that this one could be Verbenia bonariensis. Could also be a Buddleia, though..

Phew! Very tricky, and just wild guesses. Failed miserably! :-)))

I, too, failed on all but No. 2 being an Agapanthus! Lovely photos though. :o)

I have absolutely no idea about the plant id ;o) but really nice pics Barbara :o)))))))

I've tried my hardest:
1. Spikus brown hollyus
2. Agapanthus frostyitus
3. Cold as iceitus
4. Long trailing fernocius
5. Eidelwiess frostratus
6. Frosted christmastreeum
7. Stematis alba
8. Blackened iceund Oakus
9. Frosted wheateos
10. Buddleartum Freezum

Oh Sticki - that's wonderful! I'm giggling my head off here - I think you deserve a prize for creativity! LOL.

David you did have a good try - I award you 5/10. :-))

I shall leave this for a while and see if anyone else wants to have a go before I reveal all!

thanks spritz! a friend of ours once opened their garden for charity and i did some labels for the plants for them, such as:
plantus weedium, plantus growtooquick, plantus tooexpensive!

LOL!! Very funny, cheered me up!

Like Sandra said ours was like that on monday, no snow just freezing fog..

Sticki, you had me going there - I wondered how you knew all those latin names! After a few hours Christmas shopping my poor brain is not working at all :)
Lovely photos, Spritz, but I admit I am beaten.

Nice pics, not got a clue what they all are, except the one that could decorate a hat is a conifer that one of my clients has in her garden, and I can't remember its name...

sorry Gee, i tried hard but i couldnt do it so i went for the alternative!
the grasses ~ 3rd from last ~ is the same as the very big garden centre near here ~ with the same amount of frost on too!

I won't leave you in suspense too long - I'll edit the blog tomorrow and show you what they all are. I think you'll say - 'Oh, yes, of course it is!' LOL.

i'll give it ago but not so sure.
1. acanthus
2 .agapanthus
3. echinacea
4.fuchsia with the tiny flowers.
5.helenium
6.achillea
7.pervoskia
8.pittosporum
9.stipa gigantea
10.verbena bonariensis

not a clue either but looks as pretty as my garden all frosty .but i am staring at it from my sick bed ... which is very snug and cosy .;o((

oh dear cristina, thats not so good ~ but you have a good excuse for not answering

Sbg - you did even better than David! You got 6 right - well done. :-))

Poor Cristina - get well soon.

I think No.3 is Knautia, but I've not got my glasses on, so I'm viewing from 3" distance, which means the screen is too bright, so my pupils have almost closed, which means to be quite honest, I can't see a *loody thing!!!

how can you type like that jason??

Just wish that I could see anything in the garden right now - all well and truly buried!!!! Even the cabbgaes, lol!!! Lovely pics, as always, Spritz! Amazed to get that scoring, lol!!! Wow, Sbg!!!!!! Get Well Soon, Cristina!!
Get your specs on, Jason - LOL!!!!

Jason's probably touch typing - my keyboard is virtually blank, apart from Q, Z, X and other, non letter, keys. I don't need to see the keyboard, can type with my eyes shut, so maybe Jason can too.

Oh, I wish I could, Bamboo - I use two fingers and have to look at the keyboard all the time, so the 'edit' facility is in constant use!

I look at the screen when I type, much more useful, but then I was taught to touch type when I was 14, so that's a lot of years of typing, 15 of them in various offices, and now at home. Not so hot on the shorthand now, though, but am often surprised by how much I do remember of it, haven't used it for years on a regular basis.

It wasn't part of teacher training - it should be now! Our daughter went on a course in between terms at Uni - she found and finds it very useful.

Well I went to a Secondary Modern where they equipped us for work - by the time I left, I'd got 40 wpm typing and 90 wpm shorthand at 16, speeds improved at night school and was never short of work. But I'd rather have been a pharmacist, lol! It used to be true what they said - if anyone knew you could type, that's all you'd be doing! Not so now though, I don't think, because everyone types after a fashion, even garage mechanics.

I looked at it the other day Spritz and I agree with everything sticki says.........ouch!......

i can touch type cos i went to evening school, its very useful ~ i did my degree later on and although they didnt teach you to type you were in trouble if you couldnt so everyone got on with it and came out with a degree and keyboard skills!!!

Stickitoffee...you have made me laugh so much with your plant identifications.....thank you!!!
Spritz, thank you for your ever so subtle hint on my
'Somerset'blog this is wonderful, and I came racing over to check it out as soon as I could.....I am so taken by the beauty of these plants caught in the magic coating of frost....such great photos...and as to plant idents, I leave that to those much wiser than I lol...I hope you have defrosted by now my dear friend....\0/x

1 acanthus 2.agapanthus 3. echinacea 4. berberis 5. bulbous plant lol? 6 ? 7. pittospurum 9. grass:-) 10 viburnum bonariensis Best I can do Spritz, only sure of 2:-) Lovely pics and gave my brain a workout:-)

thanks floribunda ~ my answers were easier!!!

Ba - not bad at all! 5/10. :-)) Glad you enjoyed it after my heavy hint!

Thanks, Flori - yes, the hoar frost was only here for two days.

I'm going to edit this blog this evening, and add the flowers as answers. I think you'll all be surprised! ;-)

very curious to find out which were the correct guesses.
When I get rid of the snow [still a 'proud' 14" deep in the garden, but a good thaw today up to a warm 3 degrees] I will enjoy seeing wht I have.

I've done it - so now you know!

That's a lot of snow, Sbg. :-((

i think you should have a blog award for this !

i think you should have a blog award for this !

What - two of them, Sticki? LOL.

Thanks....

Lovely Pics,Spritz,and enjoyed the humour of it....They all look stunning with the frost...:o))

oh dear, cant do latin or horticulture and now cant do blogging! blame the internet connection

oh dear, cant do latin or horticulture and now cant do blogging! blame the internet connection

We understand :o)

Sticki, you can do it twice as good;-) Going to look at the answers now:-)

Oh Spritz, I KNEW number 3 was echinacea....how could I be so wrong, I was the most certain one of that one lol:-) and I knew I recognised 6. the leaf pattern is obvious now you've shown what it was. My perovskia left me a few years ago so that's my excuse for not getting that;-) Good entertaining blog, thanks:-)

Well, Rudbeckias and Echinaceas do look pretty similar, Ba - frosted or not! :-)))

I'm glad you enjoyed it, anyway.

Now you're just trying to be nice:-)

I'm ALWAYS nice - I don't have to try, Ba! LOL.

I knew that:-))

:-))) xx

I did have a quick look before you answered the questions Spritz but my answers weren't as good as sticki's. The blog looks brilliant now with the summer and winter pics paired up. More please when we get the next frost :-))

Haven't got a clue Spritz but then again I could hardly name them in summer so it's no surprise really! Lol ;~)

Your garden even looks gorgeous when it's covered in frost where as mine just looks ......... white :~(

Ah there you are Ian, feeling a bit better now? I wondered where you were - how much snow you got up there then?

Are you sure about that, Anne? I could post some more, but it might be a bit close to this one. I took loads of photos before my hands turned blue!

Thank you kind sir. :-)))

The contrasts are lovely Spritz and that is a fraction of your garden x

lovely to see the difference! Great Idea!

Thanks, Anne and Marydoll. :-))

Hey Spritz, when are you going to reveal all???

Spritz has interwined the answers up above in the blog, Pip! :-)) Very clever, too, Spritz!! :-)).

Great to see the "befores" and "afters"!!! Now, how did I mix up the eryngium and rudbeckia? Lol! And I never remembered seeing pampas grass in your garden, but definitely the Stipa. :-)))

Ahhhhhh, well done Spritz!!!!!

Hello Bamboo,

Yes, we are all much better now, thank you.

I've been busy working on another project for a while and with the snow (3 foot of it!), chickens with cold feet, slipping on ice and looking after Holly and Carol it has left me little time for anything else unfortunately. I do pop in for a read when I can but commenting is often a luxury I have to do without I'm afraid.

Oh well, good that you're busy - blooming 'eck, as I'm sitting here I can hear a really loud buzzing - turns out to be a huge bumble bee, or a queen, or something, on the inside of my window. Now you don't expect that this time of year, I must go and deal with it...

Well, I'm cross with myself that I didn't see this quiz til today. Never mind! (Note to self - look at blogs from time to time). I could only guess a few - the plants look so different frosted and with nothing to gauge scale by.

I taught myself to touch type - after a fashion - few years ago. The key that gets used most is the "backspace" and I'm only about 95% accurate, but it's quicker than "peek and peck" or whatever two finger typing is called. There are CD rom's available that can teach you - I used a second hand copy of "Mavis Beacon" but there are others.

Oooh, Beattie - that sounds like hard work! I don't think I'm up to learning a new skill now...or shall I rephrase that and say "I don't want to?" LOL.

I'm sorry you missed this blog, but I'm intending to write a second one, along similar lines very soon. ;-)

Learning to touch type kept me amused one Christmas & New Year & still comes in useful. As I use a laptop all the time I've found that I'm hopeless on a normal keyboard - not to worry.

Now I know there's such a lot of good stuff on "blogs" I'll be keeping an eye on them.

Ah, so it does work in reverse, I've always wondered - I can't type at all on a laptop, need a stepped keyboard, totally flat and I'm useless.

So it's done by programming your brain, then!

(P.S. I'm working on blog 2 - might get it posted this evening.)

Absolutely, Spritz - neural pathway... unfortunately I've got one of those for smoking as well...

Tsk, tsk. Try thinking about something you really want to buy - and have a box to put the money in - instead of buying a packet of cigarettes! (I expect you've been there, done that!)

So glad you posted the sunny pics Spritz..then I got them ALL right!! Fell about laughing at Stickitoffee's answers..must remember to ask her where you can buy those plants!!!

Yes, agreed! I wouldn't mind a few of them, either.

Well done for getting 10/10. LOL. See what you can do with the new set! ;-)

Its a sad fact that my tobacco is cheaper than buying nicotine substitute - I don't smoke ordinary ciggies, Spritz...

a friend went on a scheme at the local health centre-- didn't cost hem anything and --- a lifetime smoker-- stopped

just re-read your comment Bamboo--is it medicinal?.....

Sadly not, Pamg, can't get any decent stuff here... Golden Virginia I'm afraid.
Spritz - I believe you're in for more snow from tomorrow, later in the day, aren't you, isn't it sweeping in from the west?

that'll make a change-- we're 60 odd miles from the coast and every time they give the forecast for the east -- we get it as well!

Er, I've just watched the forecast on the BBC - they're now saying sweeping down from the North, getting to London by thursday night/Friday.

ohhh lovely......( mutter mutter curse curse)

I think Goys the only thing keeping me sane at the moment-- ( well sort of sane....)

Aha! I'll wait for the sunny ones again Spritz...cant spoil my perfik record now can I?? lol!

Well I hope we dont suffer as much with the weather this time around...some of my plants are already sprouting!

Honestly, the BBC weather folk drive me bonkers - the national forecast said London would get it by Thursday night/Friday - the local one said we'd get a big deluge on Saturday, just a few drizzly bits before. I wouldn't mind, but its the same channel...

Our forecast is for very cold weather on Thursday night, then snow showers on Friday. It also looks like lots of snow for us all next week. :-((((