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Plant identification

danlloyd17danlloyd17 Posts: 14
in Wildlife gardening
Hi all.
My wife and I were having our usual lock down walk and came across some lovely plants on the edge of several borders.
Can any body help us with their identification please.
Many thanks 

Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Valerian - the fluffy seeds travel and it pops up all over the place round here

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • danlloyd17danlloyd17 Posts: 14
    Thank you so much. The wife is Happy that they are good for bees and butterflies so it looks like we will be adding these to our garden.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    They are lovely there is a white variety too and I see some quite dark reds in some gardens.
    Once they seed you'll get them popping up here and there and in most surrounding gardens :)

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    Centranthus rubra - commonly called Valerian, can be red, pink or white.

    Real Valerian looks like this

    They both smell unpleasant though. 
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I've heard they smell unpleasant. I have all three colours and they don't smell of anything to me😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • PenylanSuePenylanSue Posts: 22
    Wild native valerian smells divine. This is Centranthus rubra as someone posted.

  • PenylanSuePenylanSue Posts: 22
    The white flowered plant in the previous picture is actually the wild native valerian officinalis but I think someone already said this.

  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    edited June 2020
    Real Valerian is called Valeriana officinalis and has a bit of an unpleasant smell.

    Centranthus is actually not valerian, not sure how it got called that. It grew wild all over where I grew up, very pretty too.  It didn't smell bad until it began to die down at the end of the summer/autumn.

    Edit - sorry, repeated myself there. 
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