Which weeds/unexpected flowers do you like to keep?

jaffacakes

Morning all,

Thought it would be interesting to hear which weed/flowers you didn't plant that you like to keep in the garden. Even if you pull out a few but leave some as you find them pretty.

For me, I'm not the best at identifying them so it would be interesting to know. There is one that i quite like called Herb Robert. I left a few of these last year as find them quite pretty and just pull out those that are in the wrong location

http://www.british-wild-flowers.co.uk/H-Flowers/Herb%20Robert.htm

Loxley

In my last garden I used to like the Jack By The Hedge that popped up near the base of a conifer (where nothing else would grow). It died back unattractively in midsummer but put on very nice display in late spring.

nutcutlet

I wouldn't know where to start, 

Buttercupdays

Herb Robert is pretty and butterflies love it

I have to admit to keeping most things, but then I have a lot of wild flowers in the garden as I love them and they seem most appropriate here. I lke the way the garden morphs into wildness as you get farther from the house.

I do weed out ground elder and creeping buttercup from the more cultivated beds and borders, but you can always find plenty, as it is impossible for me to keep on top of them in a large garden.

I weed some dandelions too, but they are nice to add to salads and the goldfinches love the seeds, so I leave some in spite of their bad ways.

I leave the dog violets in the cracks between the paving stones, as the flowers are lovely and they look neat, not weedy.

I get rid of nettles near places where I walk but leave them elsewhere for the butterflies to lay eggs on. I keep some hogweed as I like the stems for winter decoration, rosebay willowherb for the elephant hawk moths and great willow herb as it looks lovely in the marshy wildernss where I can't walk anyway and is covered in butterflies in summer, though I pull up the weedy looking little ones.

I am just growing some teasels to add to the drier edges of said wilderness for the goldfinches n winter.

Some of the worst weeds here are actually garden plants gone rogue!

B3

Herb Robert, aquilegia, violet, feverfew,celandine,lords and ladies, moss ( it keeps the 'lawn' green), purple toadflax, himalayan honeysuckle, that weedy iris, centaurea, euphorbia,primula, some creeping thing with mauve flowers that grows out of walls, scarlet pimpernel, one small clump of sedge

I'm surprised I have room for non-weeds

punkdoc

When I keep them, I call them wild flowers.

If I decide to bin them, then they are pernicious weeds.

jaffacakes

Wow thank you all. You keep a lot. I must be less vigorous in my weeding or maybe I just don't get enough of the pretty ones

Joyce21

I am a bit like you B3 but I do limit where they are in the garden.

Invicta2

I let some wild flowers self seed in specific areas of the garden, but the same plant would be treated like a weed if it crops up in the vegetable or fruit area [ except it could end up being tenderly transplanted like the Primroses that came up in the Strawberry bed ]. Even thugs [ e.g. Alchemilla mollis ] are tolerated when they come up in the cracks of the front drive in place of grass or dandelions.

jaffacakes

i went out for a little look today after work and found what seem to be a lot of speedwell popping up in my borders. Nobody has mentioned this flower yet. I like the pretty blue flowers so i'm tempted to keep a few as my borders are pretty bare at the moment 

nutcutlet

speedwells are lovely, really lively blue, lots of different ones.

I grow a lot of wild flowers, a few photos here