the thing looks like a mantis egg sac .. compare here:

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=mantis+egg+sac&iax=images&ia=images

watch for mini carbon copies in spring ... no need to destroy it ... they are beneficials ...

the other 'thing' .. im pretty sure is a zinnia .. .lol ...

ken

I agree it looks like cherry laurel, Prunus laurocerasus. There are a number of dwarf or compact cultivars on the market, the smallest arguably 'Mt. Vernon', which would be unusual to exceed 3'even after many years.

of course she was mr buffet ... lol

now dont cut your heal on the way back home ....

Ken, the introduced Asian Mantis is destructive to our natural ecosystems is definitely not beneficial! They should be destroyed. They eat our native Carolina Mantis.

Lol, thanks Ken! I had that "zinnia" right on the tip of my tongue!

Hmm, I guess the good thing is maybe my memory is better than I thought if it is a laurel. The bad thing is why would I plant something like this? I did a quick google search and there's not many dwarf cultivars out there. Perhaps an Otto Luyken... At least I hope it's a dwarf because there's no way I can have anything bigger here. Guess time will tell...

I just recently read a thread here about praying mantises and was surprised to hear that they are not beneficial, after hearing since I was a kid that they are.

:)

Dee

Doesn’t look right for Otto Luyken imo. That has narrower, more pointed and darker leaves.

There are numerous cultivars of Prunus laurocerasus. Sometimes they can be difficult to tell apart from just a few photos. Although zone 6 does rule out many.

the introduced Asian Mantis is destructive to our natural ecosystems is definitely not beneficial!

==>> tell me how to differentiate such based on the egg sac .... thx ...

regardless ... they are so 'from outer space'.. they are cool ...

one flew by my head in my peripheral vision once.. i almost peed myself ... what the heck was that ... lol ...

ken

ps: i dont know which kind flew by .. i wasnt focused one the bug at that time ... bladder control was the prioritized issue at that moment in time ....

You need to look up the difference between a native Carolina Mantis egg sac and the Asian species. Please DO NOT DESTROY until you CONFIRM the species.

I have only found the Asian in my yard but I can't tell from the angle of your photo.

I'm not happy when I come across any species of mantis in my gardens. They devour the bees, butterflies, and other benefical insects far more than they help keep the pests under control.

Hmm, I just don't know. I've spent some time looking up cherry laurels and it seems most cultivars are well over ten feet. The only shorter ones are Marbled Dragon, which being variegated I can rule out, Mount Vernon, which would be too short, and Nana or Otto Luyken. Possibly Schipkaenis (or one of it's endless name variations lol) but the descriptions of this are so varied, with heights ranging from 4 to 12 feet, that I don't think I would have chosen this cultivar. Geez, even Compacta gets 8-10 feet tall. I'm building a shrub border here with shrubs about 5-6 feet tall so I would have chosen accordingly (well, to the best of my ability to know how big a shrub will grow lol). So that brings me to Otto Luyken (but I trust floral on this one!) or Nana, from what I've found so far. I also would have gotten it at a nursery that carries common specimens, nothing fancy, unusual, or uncommon, so that narrows it too.

I'm debating whether I want to dig around at the base of this and see if there's a tag buried. Well, I really don't want to, lol, but perhaps I should. I've got records of plants I bought in 1998 but can't find the receipt from this 3-4 year old shrub lol. Sigh...

Thanks for the help. At least I know it's a cherry laurel. Feel free to throw out ideas of other cultivars if there are any!

:)

Dee

'Majestic Jade' is another variety we sometimes see down here in Virginia. Slightly larger than Otto Luyken. 'Zabeliana' is another variety. But yours is not Zabeliana nor Mount Vernon.