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ID Please?

UrbanNoviceUrbanNovice Posts: 29
in Plants

As a complete gardening novice I really ought to start labelling things after planting them! 

Sorry for another plant ID request but any ideas what this could be? It's in a half barrel planter, in partial shade and is currently about 35-40 cm tall. Thank you.


Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 26,455
    Did you buy a delphinium?
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391
    I'd guess at Larkspur, an annual type of delphinium.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 9,570
    It looks rather like monkshood to me (Aconitum napellus). It's related to delphinium and the leaves are quite similar.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • UrbanNoviceUrbanNovice Posts: 29

    Thanks all. I'll probably have to wait for flowers (if they come) to confirm but after looking at Aconitum napellus (monk's-hood, wolfsbane) on Wiki - I'd better be very careful with it for now!
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 9,570
    Wearing gloves when you handle it plus normal hygiene like washing hands after gardening should be fine. I've had a monkshood in the garden for probably the better part of 20 years and I'm still alive and kicking (it's quite a big clump, never been split but I probably should do that sometime).
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • LynLyn Posts: 22,859
    If it is an Aconitum,  it will be lovely the bees go mad for it.  I wouldn’t have thought it would have found itself in a tub though,   Did the OP buy the plants or were they already in the tub.
    Not the sort of plants that are generally placed in tubs for sale.  I would go with @BobTheGardener suggestion.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 9,570
    I got the impression the OP had planted it there and then lost the label/forgotten what it was. I don't think I've ever seen annual larkspur sold as growing plants, only as seeds. There's a daintier type of delphinium (butterfly? something like that) - maybe it's one of those.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • UrbanNoviceUrbanNovice Posts: 29
    Sorry - I wasn't very clear.

    We bought a half barrel planter and filled it with a top soil, peat-free compost and perlite mix, with drainage pebbles and holes at the base. We then visited a small independent plant shop and asked for a selection of native woodland species - this included cornus, ivy, ferns and lupins.

    The idea was to create a woodland planter as it's location is quite shady. The plant that has grown the most is the one in the photo.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,637
    Looks like aconitum to me and is a good plant for partial shade.  If it is, it will likely produce blue/purple hooded flowers tho some varieties have cream flowers.   Seeds are easy to collect and sow to increase stocks but do be careful how you handle the entire plant.  It's poisonous but, like foxgloves and others, it's fine if you handle it sensibly.

    https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/380/Aconitum-napellus/Details 


    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • UrbanNoviceUrbanNovice Posts: 29
    Thanks all. The pictures of the aconitum flowers look beautiful - can't wait for them to emerge.

    We are growing foxgloves elsewhere too so, as you say, just a case of being mindful of the toxicity of some species.
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