Identifying New Construction Plants

We moved into our new house November 25, 2020, so the plants that came with the house were basically twigs at this point. Some had plant tags but some did not. I'll have better luck identifying the mystery plants when they leaf out this spring, but here is what we have so far:

Front yard: Linden tree and two mystery trees. Maybe a maple (left) and the other some kind of cherry (right behind Linden)?

Front bed: A generic burning bush and two mystery plants, maybe some kind of hydrangea or lilac? The corner of the house has a Royal Raindrops crabapple and Taxus shrubs. 

West bed: Two arctic emerald boxwood and one Hydrangea 'Dolly' labeled

East bed: Two lilac 'Josee' and one Sweetspire Itea 'Merlot'. I also moved 2 divisions of Siberian iris from the old house - the only plants I took with me. 

Back yard: Exclamation!™ London Planetree - Platanus x acerifolia ‘Morton Circle’- this big boy is going to get huge. Hopefully when the HOA changes hands we can move the fence further back into the easement.

Great Utility Box Plant Combination

One of my favorite combination of plants to hide the utility boxes is a mix of flowers that bloom at different times of the year, and a feather reed grass that provides a nice backdrop. Now, this combination also dies to the ground in winter so if you really wanted to hide a utility box you could use an evergreen shrub, but nevertheless over the years I found this combination works really well together:

• Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' feather reed grass
• Iris sibirica - Siberian Iris
• Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus' - Huge purple coneflower
• Aster novae-angliae 'Purple Dome'

I learned that you don't want to have too many different types of plants, you want to have just a handful and have repetition so it looks really pleasing to the eye and not like just a hodgepodge of plants. 

Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus'

Iris sibirica

Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus'

Aster novae-angliae 'Purple Dome'

Last Photos of Old House

I'm saying goodbye to the old house, the lot that I landscaped from the ground up - replacing every tree and shrub that came with the house (except one shrub), taking trunk fulls of discarded sod to cover the back yard, digging and amending the soil to make beds on all sides. It was a lot of work! 

November isn't the best time of year to show off the final shots of the yard. But to be honest, once I knew we were moving I wasn't all that motivated to make everything perfect and put a lot of time and energy into it. I spent a lot more of my energy painting the outside trim and interior walls. We fixed the fridge light and ice maker right before moving out. Isn't it funny that we lived with a leaky ice maker for years and fixed it in an afternoon and now we can't even enjoy it. I guess that's just how it goes. Nothing lights a fire for home projects like trying to get top dollar. 

Blue Spear Lavendar - Lavandula angustifolia 'PAS1213794'

Itea virginica 'Sprich' Little Henry

Liriope muscari 'Variegata'

Shade side yard including Little Henry and Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold' in foreground

Bloomstruck hydrangea and boxwoods in the front yard

Boxwood and hydrangea 'Bloomstruck'

Phemeranthus calycinum 'Judith's Favorite'

Lilac 'Miss Kim'

Picea orientalis 'Skylands' oriental spruce

Picea orientalis 'Skylands' oriental spruce