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Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

 
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Sunday - August 03, 2008

From: Mt. Pleasant, MI
Region: Midwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Plant identification
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

6 2 ft. spikes appeared in an infertile part of my garden. They have a huge quantity of very tiny ochid-like flowers, mostly white with pink tinge. I took it to the master gardeners here and no one could identify it. It isn't showy at all but the flowers are extremely intricate. The local experts think if might be some kind of mint because of the smell, but it doesn't look at all like the standard plant. Any clues as to where I should look? I have a picture but it has many pixels. Andrea

ANSWER:

We would be very happy to try to identify your plants, but we are going to need photos. Please take one of the entire plant so we can see its shape, etc., one of the flower spike with a closeup of the flowers, and also a closeup of the leaves. Your program for downloading photos to your computer should have a way to reduce the size of your photos. If you can't figure out how to do this and don't have someone who might help you do it, then send them the size they are. Please visit the Ask Mr. Smarty Plants page to read the instructions on submitting photos for identification.
 

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