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Flower identification

hcjones30bnwrVfnehcjones30bnwrVfne Posts: 4
in Plants
Can you identify these flowering plants please and are they bee friendly?
Thanks
Howard

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 83,757
    edited July 2020
    Hello @hcjones30bnwrVfne and welcome to the forum 😊 

    That’s one of the Willowherbs ... it looks like Rosebay Willowherb Epilobium angustifolium. 

    It’s attractive to bees and other insects and is the food for some caterpillars. It does however self-seed like mad, earning itself the name Fireweed because of the way it colonised the bomb sites of London after WW2. 

    So unless you’re happy for it to really take over your garden I would remove the fading flower heads before their soft downy seeds drift across your garden and those of your neighbours, settle and take root. 
    😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • hcjones30bnwrVfnehcjones30bnwrVfne Posts: 4
    Thanks for the info.
    Does this mean they are also food for the bees? If they are then I'd keep them as I have them under control on a patch of garden?
    Regards
    Howard
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,434
    I believe it is Greater willowherb...Epilobium hirstum.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • hcjones30bnwrVfnehcjones30bnwrVfne Posts: 4
    Yes, that looks like it. Strangely the tops flowers are missing from some of the tops

    .
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,434
    edited July 2020
    Flowers are over...now you have the seed pods..those long thin things.
    Spelling error above.....Epilobium hirsutum...ooops
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • hcjones30bnwrVfnehcjones30bnwrVfne Posts: 4
    Thanks for the info but just to clarify, are they a source of food for bees?
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