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Mystery plant identification

jagnut66f2labqBpjagnut66f2labqBp Posts: 14
in Plants
Hi, 
This has been growing in the (created) stream bed in my garden for few years now, it would like to spread across the lawn but I keep mowing it, though that hasn't stopped it migrating to other wet areas in my garden. I grows tall and produces a spike of pink flowers but what is it?
It was also in the garden I had in Milton Keynes and seems to self seed quite readily......
Many thanks,
Mike.

Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    One of the Willowherbs, probably Epilobium hirsutum. Food plant of the Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillars


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2023
    That looks like Epilobium hirsutum, the Greater Willowherb also known as Codlins & Cream as the flowers look like the colour of baked Codlin Apples and cream  :D

    It's great for wildlife ... particularly moths and their caterpillars ... but it's pretty vigorous and can spread by rhizomes and seed, so probably best to confine it to the banks of the stream by mowing alongside it ... also remove the seedheads before they ripen if you want to discourage them.  

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





  • jagnut66f2labqBpjagnut66f2labqBp Posts: 14
    So native to Britain and good for wildlife, that's okay, it can stay then.
    I was worried I had Japanese knotweed or something similar.....
    Best wishes,
    Mike.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    😊 👍 

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





  • jagnut66f2labqBpjagnut66f2labqBp Posts: 14
    Okay, while I'm at it I just spotted / remembered another 'self seeded out of no-where' plant that has spread, via it's root system, along an entire border. 
    Again a tall plant with a spike of red (if I remember correctly) flowers.
    Attractive but again, one which I keep an eye on and root out or mow over when it tries to spread. Another one that's a bit too vigorous.....
    But what is it? Native or not? Good for wildlife?
    Best wishes,
    Mike.
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @jagnut66f2labqBp Crocosmia Lucifer if it is tall and flowers approx first week in July.
    There are other red Crocosmias that mostly flower later.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited April 2023
    Looks like Chamaenerion angustifolium ...common name Rosebay willow herb.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • jagnut66f2labqBpjagnut66f2labqBp Posts: 14
    That's the one. So safe to let carry on again, I am glad. 
    I wonder where it came from but then it looks to grow both prolifically and wild, so I guess that's my answer.
    Best wishes,
    Mike.
  • bcpathomebcpathome Posts: 1,313
    The seeds blow on the breeze that’s how it spreads . If you cut the flowers off before they go all fluffy and seed ,you’ll stop it spreading. The lanes were full of them when I was a girl back in the 1950 s 
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719


    Beware of the seed head!


    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
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