New and Unread Tree-Mails
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Newburyport, MA  rdrr Jul 5, 2019 2:17 PM CST |
| Any help in identifying this plant would be helpful. It's growing along side a blackberry bush and we're trying to decide whether or not to cut it out. All of the leaves appear to grow in a 5 leaf pattern as shown in the attached images. There are 4 to 5 stems coming out of the planter box this is in all about the same size, so it's not just the one shown in the pictures. Thanks     |
Perthshire. SCOTLAND. UK     Silversurfer Jul 5, 2019 2:26 PM CST |
| Looks like a marvelously healthy Rubus fruticosa...a blackberry! They do grow quickly and send up many new strong branches. https://www.google.com/search?...: |
Name: John Scott County, KY (Zone 5b) You can't have too many viburnums..              ViburnumValley Jul 5, 2019 9:23 PM CST |
| Agree with Silversurfer - it is screaming new growth of Blackberry stems, providing the base for next year's flowers and fruits. John |
Newburyport, MA rdrr Jul 6, 2019 10:25 AM CST |
| I guess it's a different strain than the other blackberry bush we have growing? The one in the background with the berry clusters on it only has a 3 leaf pattern where this has five. The one that is currently fruiting also has a fuzz on the berry branches where this is completely smooth and the leaves on the fruiting one are a darker green. |
Name: John Scott County, KY (Zone 5b) You can't have too many viburnums.. ViburnumValley Jul 7, 2019 7:15 AM CST |
| No, you have two parts of the same plant - with markedly different morphological characteristics indicative of where the plant is in its life cycle. If you don't have good information on this plant you are trying to grow and understand, you should get some. Looking online is a start. Acquiring some authoritative written material is never a bad plan. Speaking with fellow gardeners in your area often reaps the most pointed rewards. You may wish to start with your county's Cooperative Extension Service office staff. That's their job, to impart information - and your taxes have already paid for it. I will congratulate you, though. Your skepticism got me to go out into 90ºF hot hazy humid central KY weather to my neglected and overgrown sideyard planting of - you guessed it - thornless blackberries. While I won't show you what that mess looks like (no thanks to overly zealous Clematis virginiana), I will attach images of pretty much exactly the situation you describe.   As you see, there is a stem with fruit and a stem without fruit. The stem with fruit has three-leaflet alternately arranged compound leaves - and they are somewhat darker green. That stem is also a holdover (second year) from having grown last year. The stem without fruit has five-leaflet leaves and somewhat lighter green leaves, and is a newly emerged stem this summer growing season. Blackberries flower and fruit on second year stems/branches. While I am not a plant physiologist or even close, I will play around like one here. Quantity of leaflets on the compound foliage may indicate allocation of resources in the growing plant. The second year stem is flowering and fruiting this year, so the leaves that emerged from dormant buds may be smaller or less leafletted (is that a word?) due to the stored energy/resources needed to push out flower buds - versus the new growth that is produced from currently collected energy and resources of the growing season. I can't believe this landscape architect just spit that all out. Again, I will not categorically state that what I wrote is precise, but I think I am accurate in the explanation. I will state that I can see with my own eyes exactly what you are experiencing in your garden, because it is what happens with this group of fruiting plants - and I have been growing not only the domestically selected thornless blackberries but also experience daily the native blackberries and black raspberries, which behave similarly. John |
Name: Porkpal Richmond, TX         porkpal Jul 7, 2019 11:09 AM CST |
| Dewberries too. Porkpal |
Newburyport, MA rdrr Jul 9, 2019 5:40 AM CST |
| Thanks for the information John. My daughter planted the berry bush a couple of years ago and then moved away leaving it for us to tend to so knowing that this all part of the same plant is a big help. Thanks again |
Name: John Scott County, KY (Zone 5b) You can't have too many viburnums.. ViburnumValley Jul 9, 2019 8:01 PM CST |
| You are welcome. As a plant enthusiast that is interested in more gardeners being successful, I appreciate that you push the envelope for us to show that we know what we think we know. Now: we want to hear what your daughter knows, and why she left you holding the bag... John |
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