I'm astonished that anyone is describing primulas, bluebells or snowdrops as weeds! The native bluebells are beautiful here just now. There's one hillside just across from Ben Lomond which is beautiful just now. I think cow parsley is my favourite weed. I have some in the garden. I love the hedgerows at this time of year - covered in it, plus wild garlic, and then the hogweed to follow. All interspersed with bluebells. It's just a pity there are some Spanish ones appearing as well.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hogweed, or more specifically Persian Hogweed .... Heracleum Persicum. For starters its beautiful and the spice made from dried flower head adds a nice flavour to good old (but bland) boiled potatoes, also nice with fresh pomegranate. Stems add a fragrant flavour to pickles too.
I'm astonished that anyone is describing primulas, bluebells or snowdrops as weeds! The native bluebells are beautiful here just now. There's one hillside just across from Ben Lomond which is beautiful just now.
I was being a bit ironic - following B3's lead in the OP. Centaurea is one I actively encourage, for example, as I do the bluebells and primroses. But I didn't plant them, they did just turn up. Unlike the one cowslip I have, which I planted and keep hoping will spread, but it hasn't so far.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
We have lots of self seeding plants, some of which most posters would probably class as weeds. But my favourite weed is probably the ox-eye daisies, they would take over the garden if I let them, closely followed by buttercups
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
Two plants here that just turned up are ragged robin and marsh orchid. I love both of them. The marsh orchids put themselves about a bit .... the seed is like ground pepper dust. They are some cheering up the agapanthus at the moment. They'll disappear later so the agapanthus will be fine.
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 like herb robert (though I pull most of it out) and the other wild geranium that grows under hedges, Geraniumpyrenaecium. I have some under a shrub where nothing else grows and it just lights up under there. We get loads of borage in the garden - I'm forever digging it out. But I let one grow that plonked itself by a broken pot on its side (it looks better than it sounds) next to the little pond and have been really enjoying that intense blue of its flowers.
To call borage a weed feels slightly painful; also poppies. They are one of my new loves this year - Welsh and Californian poppies, esp the red Fire Chief.
Maybe the term 'weed' isn't that useful any more. Maybe we need a new word.
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The native bluebells are beautiful here just now. There's one hillside just across from Ben Lomond which is beautiful just now.
I think cow parsley is my favourite weed. I have some in the garden. I love the hedgerows at this time of year - covered in it, plus wild garlic, and then the hogweed to follow. All interspersed with bluebells. It's just a pity there are some Spanish ones appearing as well.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I've sown cow parsley and meadowsweet seeds. Hoping for the best...
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
I love both of them.
The marsh orchids put themselves about a bit .... the seed is like ground pepper dust.
They are some cheering up the agapanthus at the moment. They'll disappear later so the agapanthus will be fine.
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
We get loads of borage in the garden - I'm forever digging it out. But I let one grow that plonked itself by a broken pot on its side (it looks better than it sounds) next to the little pond and have been really enjoying that intense blue of its flowers.