A friend gave me a plant a couple of years ago, he said it was a Lilac bush but it never bloomed at all, this year it looks like I have some leaf buds coming on. It is really tall and the friend gave me a branch that had small bell-shaped flowers on that smelled real sweet. I went out and checked, and it looks like leaves, maybe I can take a picture, if it stops snowing long enough. possible lilac bud ( photo / image / picture from gardennut's Garden ) You will need to get a much closer view, maybe someone can tell me if this is indeed a Lilac leaf bud!
gardennut...We need a leafbud picture with the bud still attached to the stem. That isn't enough for me to see to make a judgement call. can you get a picture of the whole plant, too. Lilacs will have buds (really fat ones, too, if they are flower buds) in pairs, not alternately, up the stem. If it was small when your friend gave it to you it may need a couple years of growing to get big enough to produce flower buds.
gardennut--I agree with Carolyn, it looks a little hard to tell what it is. Frankly it looks a bit like an asparagus tip on a white toilet seat! I'd love to see a photo a little later in the season once the leaves have actually opened. I wish you well with it. If you'd like, I can post a photo of our lilacs once they begin to unfurl too.
mystery bush leaves I took this picture last year and no one could tell me what it was, I will post it here and maybe the great people here can enlighten me on what it is, I went out and got a leaf bud and everyone said they needed to see it on a stem, so I went and found a picture of what they looked like last year. mystery plant ( photo / image / picture from gardennut's Garden )
They are in pairs up the stem, as you can see in the picture. I was leaning toward Privet instead of Lilac.
I don't think it is either one of those guesses, either. Is it herbacious, shruby or single stem and woody? I couldn't tell from the picture if it was alternate or opposite leafed. sorry. Privet has smaller less elliptical leaves and butterfly bush has darker green and wider, more triangular leaves than this, I think.
is it Lilac or not? Here is the plant that has the buds on it, I can't figure out why no one can tell me what it is, there has got to be SOMEONE who knows what it is. Here is a picture of the lower part of the plant, it is quite tall, over my head in fact. I know my friends here try to find out and I appreciate that, but I would like to know so I can start taking care of it better. mystery plant ( photo / image / picture from gardennut's Garden )
Honestly, I don't know what it is. It looks like a weed tree to me. It is not a lilac. Lilacs grow from the ground up with no side branches. If it is taller than you and hasn't flowered yet...I am more inclined to think it is a weed. Did you ask your friend what the name of it was or can you ask them again? If I am not mistaking a privet will not have any noticeable flowers on it, but what are there will be small white ones and very insignificant and I am thinking ( i don't have any myself, just trying to remember more about them) that they are leathery leafed.
Well, your plant looks woody, the buds are opposite, it does look shrub-like. Privets are all of those things, plus they do have a white bloom with a nice-ish odor. Bees love them. The flowers are small, but in a raceme about an inch long or so. After the flowers go, privet has small dark berries. The leaves are about 2" long. Does that sound like your bush?
If it is a butterfly bush then the flowers would have already been evident since it is taller than you and they are big bottle brush type flowers (hardly mistakable) not little bell flowers... I still think it is a weed tree/shrub due to its size without any flowers yet. I went out to look at my lilac and the top two buds are huge compared to the rest. The bark looks totally different from this, too. Barb, Can you go get a picture of the bark on a shrub of yours? I ripped all my butterfly bushes out. They were weeds everywhere for me.
