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Harmless weed or garden thug?

sjlivingstonsjlivingston Posts: 6
in Plants
Can anyone help identify this plant currently rampaging through our garden? I have left some to grow and it is now up to 1.5m tall and flowering!!!
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Posts

  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    I think it is chicory. If it is, it is a tall, untidy plant but a spectacular blue. Do you live near farmland? It could have come from there. 
  • B3B3 Posts: 26,994
    How can anything so lovely be a thug? Famous last words😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • sjlivingstonsjlivingston Posts: 6
    Posy said:
    I think it is chicory. If it is, it is a tall, untidy plant but a spectacular blue. Do you live near farmland? It could have come from there. 
    That came up on one of the plant identification apps but the leaves don’t seem right 🤔
  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    At first I thought it was wild chicory too but on a closer look at the leaves and pics of chicory, I don't think it is. I have no idea what that is, might be something from bird seed or brought in by birds/wind and us actually a garden plant. I've seen chicory growing wild and it's more blue and upright. 
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Now, I am not being insulting, but are you absolutely sure that that is the right leaf and not another plant which is very very close? I think we need an expert on this plant!
  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    @Posy.    I wondered the same. The chicory I've seen had different leaves.

    OP - is it a quite stiff upright growth? The plant in the picture looks more lax. 
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 23,120
    Wild chicory has broad lower leaves, as in this photo, but the upper leaves are longer and more pointed.

    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,932
    Looks like wild chicory to me too @Busy-Lizzie 👍 

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





  • sjlivingstonsjlivingston Posts: 6
    Posy said:
    Now, I am not being insulting, but are you absolutely sure that that is the right leaf and not another plant which is very very close? I think we need an expert on this plant!
    I shan’t be insulted but, yes, I am absolutely sure!! I shall find pics of the leaves from earlier in the season too.

  • sjlivingstonsjlivingston Posts: 6
    Busy-Lizzie said:
    Wild chicory has broad lower leaves, as in this photo, but the upper leaves are longer and more pointed.


    Busy-Lizzie said:
    Wild chicory has broad lower leaves, as in this photo, but the upper leaves are longer and more pointed.


    These are the leaves from early June so maybe that is what it is! It’s absolutely taking over my herbaceous border and a shrubbery on the other side of the garden! Any advice??
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