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Wildflower or weed??

Dan111Dan111 Posts: 4
in Wildlife gardening
I have a small patch that i laid wildflower turf on last march/april. I got some wildflower colour last summer but this year seems to be dominated by these tall weed looking plants. Does anyone know what they are? I'm not sure if they are wildflowers yet to bloom or intrusive weeds coming through that need to be pulled. I'm fairly new at this so any help gratefuly recieved........
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  • anniedtanniedt Posts: 85
    I do not recognise this plant but it does look a bit 'weedy' to me.  If it were in my garden, I would pull up the majority of them as they will crowd out any others and take most of the nutrition in the soil but leave some until they flower.  When flowering post again as flowers will give more of an idea as to the name of the plant.
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 932
    Before you pull it up it would be worth taking some time to google through images of the plants that made up your wildflower turf. You should be able to get this from the company website. Many of the plants in wildflower seed mixes and turfs are considered weeds by gardeners but are exactly what you want to grow.

    If yo7 email a picture to the company they may also be able to advise.

    At least you will then know if it ‘should’ be there, you will also have a better idea of what else to keep or weed out. It does look like it’s dominating so you might want to reduce the amount of it Even if it was part of the wildflower mix.

    One of the hardest parts of establishing wildflower areas is learning and being able to distinguish between the wildflowers you do want and those wildflowers/weeds that you don’t want.
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,249
    Check out Sow thistle.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391
    edited May 2020
    Those stems in the foreground of the last photo look a bit woody so I don't think it's an annual weed and could be a herbaceous perennial, but without close-up photo's, difficult to say.  Some types of evening primrose (Oenothera species) look a bit like that.  The ones above could well be a sow-thistle.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Dan111Dan111 Posts: 4
    Thanks eveyone for your comments. Happy to know that it wasnt an obvious one! I will wait and see what happens with them and probably pull a good few out to reduce numbers afterwards. 
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,586
    Not sow thistle. What about knapweed? Often put in wild flower mix as very beneficial to pollinators when in flower and then goldfinches when in seed.
  • FireFire Posts: 18,068
    They will be great for pollinators, esp if it's knapweed
  • EricsGardenEricsGarden Posts: 151
    I think we have these growing in about half of the garden. Are they very easy to pull up and have short white roots? I was told they are weeds that have nice flowers, but I'm still pulling most of them up as they're taking over. 


  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 54,353
    You may have willow herb @EricsGarden - they are quite similar. You definitely don't want to keep those  ;)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • mike_mJDc2Emmike_mJDc2Em Posts: 1
    I think you've nailed it there Fairygirl. The density of that patch looks exactly how the rosebay willowherbs grow around here. It *might* be marsh sow thistle but they tend, I think, to grow individually not in dense coverage like the photos. 

    And dear OP, the difference between a weed and a wild flower lies in your mind I'd have thought. If the flower/plant is growing where you don't want it, its a weed. Otherwise its a wild flower, and vice versa. 
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