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what is taking over a border area?

image

 This is poking up all around a gravel boder and wonder what it is and how I can get rid of it. Gravel has been laid poorly so there are plenty of gaps where it can poke up. Not worried about nearby plants so strong weed killer is okay but it seemed to shrug off the stuff I got from the pound shop

Posts

  • Jo JoyJo Joy Posts: 3

    Ignore the purple flower it is just something that has fallen off another plant

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,930

    Don't kill them!!! It's cyclamen hederifolium!!! image

    image

     

     We've got the white version - love them to bits!!!

    If they're in the wrong place it's easy to dig them up in the spring and move them somewhere they can naturalise.  They grow from corms which become huge, the size of dinner plates.  

    The pink flower is the cyclamen - they come through before the leaves, and the coiled stems like springs have the seedcases at the tips.  

    Lovely big snail in the middle there too image


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





  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 54,353

    Can I have them if you don't want them Jo?  image

    Without the big snail lurking there though - got plenty of them! image

    I've got white ones and I used to have bright pink ones too. They're lovely little plants.

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,433

    My MIL had one growing in gravel and tarmac at the side of the house. I dug it up and moved it before the house was sold. The corm was 6 inches across.

    They seem to seed about everywhere except for me.

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,930

    When the builders refenced our boundary and shored up the Shady Bank with sleepers, they kept their eyes open for the cyclamen corms, dug them out carefully and put them in a shady corner - they were there for a couple of months before we could replant them but they've all survived.  They must be ages old - a couple were as bit as our round tea tray!

    When they first appeared just after we moved here I was so excited - OH says that I squealed with joy image


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





  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 23,120

    They are lovely, took me ages to get my patch going. Are you sure the purple flower is from another plant? They, the cyclamen, have lovely purple, pink or white flowers and such pretty leaves.

    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,354

    I can't see a purple flower but I can see a very nice snail



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,433

    Nut, the `PM sysytem is not working for me. I have sent you an email.

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