Pink foxgloves - every year I wage war on them as I only want white foxgloves in the garden - and every year they come back. As well as the 'native' blue and pink aquilegia.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
I've been having a wander through the 'estate' and apart from shrubs roses and clematis, there's very few plants that are not self- seeded wild flowers. Me-sown stuff is all in containers and even they have vb, toadflax, herb robert, feverfew and creeping toad flax hiding in them.
Interesting what you say about himalayan balsam and bees Bee Witched. The beekeeper at Ashwood nurseries always harvests his honey before the balsam flowers as he says it gives the honey a slightly bitter tang. I don't like it because it crowds out our native flowers along river banks. I do love fox and cubs though and am desperately tring to get native foxgloves to self seed in my garden. Love dog violets too. Can't stand dandelions though.
Hi Yviestevie, We usually finish harvesting our honey before mid-August ... any honey the bees make after that is left with them as their winter stores. The balsam flowers here (Scotland) after that .... so I've never tasted it.
I agree with you about the problems the plant causes ... once it has finished flowering and before it sets seeds I pull out any I can reach on my river bank ... but the watercourses around here have loads of it so it pops up most years in our garden regardless of my efforts.
Bee x
Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
I believe they're called umbilifers, but we haven't been Iintroduced. I can't grow them in my garden for some reason. I think I have a problem with plants with flat heads.
Those are both lovely Blue! I would happily pay for either of those.
Some weeds are weeds because they are just too successful and take over the garden. Others are just,well, weedy
I now have a number of rubbish bags stuffed full of Persicaria campanulata, in the first category. Beautiful, but I was afraid it might turn into another Himalayan Balsam, if it used my stream to travel more widely!
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Me-sown stuff is all in containers and even they have vb, toadflax, herb robert, feverfew and creeping toad flax hiding in them.
We usually finish harvesting our honey before mid-August ... any honey the bees make after that is left with them as their winter stores.
The balsam flowers here (Scotland) after that .... so I've never tasted it.
I agree with you about the problems the plant causes ... once it has finished flowering and before it sets seeds I pull out any I can reach on my river bank ... but the watercourses around here have loads of it so it pops up most years in our garden regardless of my efforts.
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
I think I have a problem with plants with flat heads.
And Desert Globe Mallow
Both of which grow in the 'wild' area of my garden. (Pictures from Google).