Native Plants

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!

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Wednesday - May 20, 2009

From: savannah, GA
Region: Southeast
Topic: Seed and Plant Sources
Title: Plant identification in Georgia.
Answered by: Jimmy Mills

QUESTION:

Help I bought a bush at the flea market and I was told it would have white star flowers and it was a hydrangea. The leaves look like cannabis but not furry. The leaves grow from stalks Help what did I buy.

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants loves doing plant identifications; however, doing them from a description alone is difficult, if not impossible, no matter how thorough the description. Please send us photos and we will do our very best to identify your plant. Visit the Ask Mr. Smarty Plants Plant Identification page to read instructions for submitting photos for identification.

If you Google Hydrangea and Cannabis, and look at images, you 'll see that their leaves are not similar at all. I think this is a good example of "buyer beware". We should also mention that we are experts on North American native plant species. If your mystery plant hails from some other part of the world, it is very likely that we will not be able to identify it. However, we may be able to point you in the direction of someone who can.