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Weed or plant I should keep?

AlisonnnAlisonnn Posts: 8
in Plants
This plant has sprung up this year. I didn’t plant it but it is more distinctive than your average weed so I thought I’d see if anyone knows what it is as if it’s an identifiable plant I might just leave it. Stems are red and the new leaves have a reddish tinge, flower buds look like berries and open up into yellow flowers. Any help in identifying would be welcome. Thank you.

Posts

  • siobhanhullsiobhanhull Posts: 1
    Hypericum. 
  • B3B3 Posts: 24,503
    Keep it if it's in the right place and you like it. You will need to brutally prune it  late summer/ early spring  to keep it in shape but as it flowers on new shoots you'll still get the flowers
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 50,365
    Personally, I hate them, apart from the berries - which are beautiful. That's the point though - it's your garden @Alisonnn, so you can decide whether to keep it or not  :)

    They are pretty easy plants to deal with though, as @B3 describes. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391
    Some of the named cultivars can be lovely but I consider the self-seeded ones to be weeds.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • TenNTenN Posts: 122
    Give it a season and see if you like it.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 28,850
    If you like it fine but there are more attractive plants and, left to itself, this one can become invasive and be a real b*tch to dig out as the roots are so thickly matted.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • AlisonnnAlisonnn Posts: 8
    Thank you for your replies.  I have decided to leave it for now as it fills a gap but will keep an eye on it and will probably get rid of it before it becomes too established
  • CopperdogCopperdog Posts: 519
    Hi @Alisonnn I love them!  I have quite a few - they are so easy.  Yes just cut down to around a foot in spring and then they grow again.  As @Fairygirl says the berries are the star.  I have gorgeous peach and red berried ones. Def keep I think
  • B3B3 Posts: 24,503
    I keep one, but I would say, there is definitely a mouse in the cupboard under the stairs smell about it😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • SueAtooSueAtoo Posts: 292
    Check online. I think there are two types, one is the cultivated one (maybe has rounder leaves) but one is a pest (at least in my garden).
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