If this is Primrose Gem, then I take it this flower is from another plant ?

I think it's a Santolina.

Looks like a Santolina rosmarinifolia, green santolina, also know as green lavender cotton. Seeing the leaves up close would be helpful.

You had a grey santolina a while back. Different species (S. Chaemacyparissus) but similar pungent camphorous scent.

Definitely not Chrysanthemum.

This is what happens when one goes to Google Images.

aleema said: This is what happens when one goes to Google Images.

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with using an ID app as a starting point . See what the app says, then explore further using this database and online images. In this case, if you'd observed the leaves and then compared them to a chrysanthemum leaf, you'd have known immediately you were on the wrong track. Google Lens usually gives you more than one option to consider, so look at those options. Try moving the search perimeter to a different part of the photo and see what else comes up. Then explore that suggestion. The value of any tool lies in how well you use it.

I'm not even close to knowing about plant identification like Tofi and Silversurfer. I only casually know what I've observed in my own gardens over the years. I've always been sensory, but through this site I've learned to observe the basics more closely —like leaf shapes and how they are positioned on the stem. When it comes to fine distinctions, I ask the experts, but I do try to find at least a workable option on my own first. Doing so helps cement the plants' characteristics in my memory.

I applaud your curiosity, but if I may suggest, narrowing your focus might bring you enhanced satisfaction. Rather than snapping a couple of pictures of each of a dozen plants and moving on, choose fewer and stop and take some time to examine them closely. That odd stiff brown "flower" might be a seed pod, can you see seeds inside, or hear them rattle? Feel the plant—are the leaves and stalks fuzzy, smooth, prickly, sticky? Smell the blossoms or crush a leaf and smell that. There are some genera that have such distinct aromas you're well on the way to identification by smell alone, like with Salvias, Lavandula and, well, Santolina.

I'm not criticizing you at all. I'm especially envious of how much you get out and about and how many plants you encounter. Just thinking about how you might make your plant explorations more satisfying. Enjoy your search!

The same scent as Gray Santolina ?



There a nest of leaves from surrounding plantlife, but the database does show similar green "leaves" as Gray Santolina.

I can just about see some from the pictures that I took.

I can't imagine what kind of scent "camphorous" is comparable to ?

@NMoasis : I thank you for taking the time to address me personally, we all have our priorities.

I appreciate what you are saying, but I've always been one to ask a lot of question and not afraid to either.

I have a wide range of interests and this hobby takes a lot of time, as you know. I do often follow the lifecycle of a plant (I just noticed Stachys Byzantina losing its blossom in as short a period as Phlomis) and that can take months. So I accost those that do know, because I have so many to find. North London is just full of flowers.

At first I just wanted to know a few, but then I began to "see" more. Admittedly, I never look at the leaves, but I do take many shots, for ID purposes. But for me, I just want to know their names.

Your advice may suit me better after the summer months, as I permanently walk around ill, because of the pollen, so I can't smell very well anyway.

The whole process started when somebody (quite useless, but very amiable) scolded me for not knowing what a bumble bee was (I ID'd a wasp) and it shamed me into realising that the only tree that I knew was a Weeping Willow.

These are not trees, but I like flowers a lot more and they're easier to distinguish.

Well, it paid off, because walking round the corner from my house, I saw a couple photographing Hydrangea Macrophylla (pink) and I told them what it was, because I knew and they didn't. On top of which I told them why it was pink and how to get different colours (pH of soil), to which they were impressed with.

Mother Nature was pleased.

Today was that first day.