Lonicera nitida....................There were two of these shrubs here, hacked into mostly dead wood squares. I cut them totally back and they've recovered.....still don't know what they are, after 2 years....BUT...they are flowering now and maybe that will help with the ID.....

TIA.....

Cotoneaster? Maybe?

Look at Lonicera nitida

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

Celia.....I also thought perhaps a cotoneaster. I've never been familar with that group, but there is a large cotoneaster of a different variety in that immediate area and someone at one time in the past was a gardener here. It looks as though they had a mixed shrub border in front like I'm doing to provide privacy from the road. There was this large cotoneaster, these two shrubs and holly also. The hollies either died or were taken out long go, I'm still finnding a few seedlings now. I've added Luma apiculata and Halleria lucida to that border and left these two unknown shrubs to see what they developed into.....I think Janet may be correct with her thought of lonicera.....

Lonicera...wow. that's a surprise for me. Certainly looks like that could be it...had no idea there was lonicera like this! Now I can maybe see what to expect as far as ultimate height, etc....

Thank you both for such quick responses!

Lonicera wasn't even on my radar.

Mine either...to me lonicera is honeysuckle vine.....LOL..there's an entirely different range of plants up here that I've not been used to dealing with in SoCal....A lot of the same plants I'm used to and a lot of stuff where I keep walking around saying , "What IS that?"

Sherry, I do that in my own yards.

I do that in my own yard here also.........this place was let go for a number of years and I don't know if the things that pop up are locally used plants or natives that have reasserted themselves. It can be like a field trip in my yard. I find myself saying...."A Gooseberry! How 'bout that! I've heard of those."....LOL...

I'm with Janet in the Lonicera nitida camp.

Okay, it's official...thanks. Mike, do you ever use that down in SoCal? It's nothing I've ever used or seen, but I've never been into hedges that much.....

Then I can maybe post pics in the database.....

You do know that much as I like the additional vote....I would never doubt Janet?....LOL..

I had Lonicera nitida a few years ago, it got too straggly and was spreading from the roots, I think it was Baggesen's Gold. I wanted to change the area I had it in so it got the old heave ho, I had another one but I don't recall which, it had purplish leaves if I recall correctly.

I'm honoured by your confidence, but I'm far from perfect.

Sherry: No, I've never seen it growing down here but did see it at a Monrovia Nursery booth at the Landscape Show a while back. Saw it at a bed and breakfast place in Cambria and it was shaped into a small hedge and looked very nice.

It is not a plant that I would have chosen to plant in this spot, especially since I'm unfamilar with it, but I did want this front border to fill in quickly with a mixed bag of stuff to provide privacy and I'm reluctant to just pull something out that is quite established if I don't know what it is. It's apparently quite tough, having been here for a long time and been chopped to pieces and still come through, so I suppose it has earned its spot there for now.

Oh, well, Janet....we all think you're perfect.....

Mike is close to perfect but there was this one comment he made about how many candles on my birthday cake.........

...only because you said it took 3 people to light them all ! hee hee

LOL.....rounding up raccoons, as we speak, to send to you....gave them all bus tickets....