Plant ID requests please. I think they are weeds!
justandnobodyelse
Posts: 128
I'm hoping to tidy up the garden during the next few weeks I have a few plants that have self seeded everywhere, I would be interested to know what they are if any of you kind people on here might know? weeds?
All of these plants are very small, ground cover type plants in habit.
Plant 1 below.
Self seed everywhere, little exploding seed pods. And small purple flower if I remember correctly, sorry no picture of flower.
Plant 2 below.
again, self seeds everywhere, in all the cracks of the paving, from memory I think it has a small yellow flower possibly?
Plant 3 below.
The plant with the Variegated leaves underneath the Hostas. It has a creeping habit where it takes root as it spreads out and touches the soil. (sorry, I don't know the term for this). I don't recall ever seeing this plant flower either.
Plant 4 below.
finally one I like! less vigorous than the previous plants though.
I have one particular bed that is completely filled with the top two plants. What would be the best approach to removing these and putting something else in instead? If weeded and removed will the presence of something new prevent these from coming back? Has too much seed been put down from these bullies already?
Any advice on the ID of any of these plants or any advice on weeding this bed will be gratefully received. Thanks in advance.
Posts
2 - Geum Urbanum - weed
3 - buttercup - weed
4- campanula maybe poscharskyana.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
C. portenschlagiana
Both are pretty ... one is a bit more invasive than the other ... not sure which ... someone will know ....
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thank you @dovefromabove @Pete.8 @Perkifor your quick responses. I better get weeding!
Can anyone suggest a possible approach to prevent them from coming back?
One of my flower beds, approximately 3m x 5m contains a small white magnolia tree about 6ft tall with clumps of Spanish bluebells dotted around underneath, Both of these look great in the spring and I would like to keep them. I weeded around the clumps of bluebells after they had finished flowering last spring. I didn't plant anything in this space and left bare earth, this bed is now infested with Geum Urbanum and the wild Violets.
Should I have planted something in this empty space? Will planting something else between the bluebells prevent the weeds from growing back? I could weed again in the spring and would like to plant something else as a ground cover that will give me some summer interest in this bed. I have been really surprised by how much those weeds have filled that bed!
Does anyone have any suggestions on a suitable ground cover plant that I could use?
Either set from seed, or planted up in the spring?
I planted an acer 30+yrs ago and a few Spanish bluebells popped up around it - they looked very pretty.
But as the years went by they increased massively, and whilst they do look lovely for a couple of weeks in the spring, the leaves soon get in a mess as they die down and it doesn't look great. Then there's no interest for the rest of the year either.
I planning to tackle them next spring, but apart from weed fabric I'm not sure what will get rid of them. Even glyphosphate has little effect as it just runs off the glossy leaves.
The wild violets aren't too tricky to pull up, but get to them before they flower and set seed in the spring - which is easier said than done in my garden as there must be thousands of them. They pop up in every nook and cranny.
Good luck
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
They can't be destroyed. No need to worry about damaging them. But other than being there, I don't have problems with them - they appear in April and disappear three weeks later. Whatever foliage is left, I pull it when it starts looking bad and I also stop them from self-seeding. One would hope removing foliage weakens them but I am not really sure. But 11 months out of 12, they are not there, there is no trace of them and all other plants grow over them.
But - and this is probably a big but - I have them in a bed from where they can't spread underground and I actively try to stop them from colonizing new areas.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48137471
Thank you all for your advice. I will probably keep the Spanish Bluebells, at least in the short term as I think they should be contained within this particular flower bed. It is surrounded on 4 sides by concrete pathways. Fingers crossed I don't regret it!
Due to the short flowering season that they provide, I will still try to grow something else in between them, at least until the Bluebells take over? And to think originally i just wanted to get rid of a few weeds!
Can anyone think of anything else that may grow in these conditions, between the bluebell clumps that would provide me with a longer period of interest and help to supress the original weeds from coming back? Are there any ground cover annuals that I could grow from seed perhaps? Any suggestions gratefully received.