Thanks for quick response Dovefromabove. Dashed outside just now to take some pics. Leaves are smooth almost shiny - very soft to the touch. Stems are 1cm thick and very hairy and hairy around the flower buds. I'll check out campions. I did try to sow wild Red Campion in wildflower pots last year but none showed up. I'll look it up again. It's just over a foot tall and clump is just over a foot wide. It's been a surprise showing up where it is.
Or .... just looked in my garden at the white campion and my Sweet Rocket (Hesperis Matronalis) another one for attracting good insects - mine is just at that stage and looks a bit like your plant but downier - have you sown any Sweet Rocket- (one of my favourites - casts its perfume on the evening air
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Very much a sandy seaside sort of plant Verdun, grows on the east coast as well and in those stony places by the sides of roads. Not here though except in my garden. The local farmer would spray anything brave enough to show its face.
Thanks everybody for having a look at this for me. I've narrowed it down to going with Dovefromabove. From web photos I'm pretty sure it has to be Red Campion and I think I've realised how it has come to be where it shouldn't be.
Last year I thought I would go native and bought a range of Scottish Wildflower seed packets - but I had sown them in pots so that they would be separated from the more manageable domestic (if you like) plants and seedlings in the actual borders. Come October - having had more rain than anything else - the pots had little to show - some had nothing - so I assumed I'd left everything outside to get sodden and that the seeds would have come to nothing. So - I tipped out the compost from all of the pots all over the borders. Having noticed that it also looks like I have wild Scottish thistles a foot or so aware from this Red Campion - which has also come as a surprise - I think some seeds have obviously finally germinated - and no doubt there will be more surprises as the weeks go on. I had not thought this big robust clump could be Red Campion initially as being an idiot the only ones I'd seen in the wild (or from what I remembered from childhood) were quite dainty little things.
I think I'm likely now to get more unexpected things appearing. Ah well. I'm happy with it and conditions must suit it. Mystery is - there was a gorgeous orange geum in that spot this time last year which has totally disappeared. That's a little disappointment as it was stunning when in bloom alongside bluebells. So either this campion has swamped it completely - or the geum has gone walkabout!
Forgot to say flowering rose - I had wondered about Borage as although I've photographs of lovely blue borage from last summer - I did read that the buds sometimes appear pinkish and then turn that lovely deep blue colour. Will be a laugh if this plant morphs into 'not' Red Campion.
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Doesn't look like one to me - the bugloss I know is very hairy, almost prickly.
That looks more like a campion/silene http://www.luontoportti.com/suomi/en/kukkakasvit/white-campion , great for night-flying insects, but that has slightly downy leaves - is your plant slightly downy - it doesn't look it from the photograph.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks for quick response Dovefromabove. Dashed outside just now to take some pics. Leaves are smooth almost shiny - very soft to the touch. Stems are 1cm thick and very hairy and hairy around the flower buds. I'll check out campions. I did try to sow wild Red Campion in wildflower pots last year but none showed up. I'll look it up again. It's just over a foot tall and clump is just over a foot wide. It's been a surprise showing up where it is.
Or .... just looked in my garden at the white campion and my Sweet Rocket (Hesperis Matronalis) another one for attracting good insects - mine is just at that stage and looks a bit like your plant but downier - have you sown any Sweet Rocket- (one of my favourites - casts its perfume on the evening air
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I will try to find a photo of Viper's Bugloss at Westonbirt arboretum as i know i snapped one there. last year.
The flowers are a lovely blue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/12799.shtml
The buds look a bit pink for a white campion. How about a red one.
The two do cross, I have some pink ones sometimes
In the sticks near Peterborough
Very much a sandy seaside sort of plant Verdun, grows on the east coast as well and in those stony places by the sides of roads. Not here though except in my garden. The local farmer would spray anything brave enough to show its face.
In the sticks near Peterborough
could be comfrey or borage.
Thanks everybody for having a look at this for me. I've narrowed it down to going with Dovefromabove. From web photos I'm pretty sure it has to be Red Campion and I think I've realised how it has come to be where it shouldn't be.
Last year I thought I would go native and bought a range of Scottish Wildflower seed packets - but I had sown them in pots so that they would be separated from the more manageable domestic (if you like) plants and seedlings in the actual borders. Come October - having had more rain than anything else - the pots had little to show - some had nothing - so I assumed I'd left everything outside to get sodden and that the seeds would have come to nothing. So - I tipped out the compost from all of the pots all over the borders. Having noticed that it also looks like I have wild Scottish thistles a foot or so aware from this Red Campion - which has also come as a surprise - I think some seeds have obviously finally germinated - and no doubt there will be more surprises as the weeks go on. I had not thought this big robust clump could be Red Campion initially as being an idiot the only ones I'd seen in the wild (or from what I remembered from childhood) were quite dainty little things.
I think I'm likely now to get more unexpected things appearing. Ah well. I'm happy with it and conditions must suit it. Mystery is - there was a gorgeous orange geum in that spot this time last year which has totally disappeared. That's a little disappointment as it was stunning when in bloom alongside bluebells. So either this campion has swamped it completely - or the geum has gone walkabout!
Thanks everybody for your time. Appreciate it.
Forgot to say flowering rose - I had wondered about Borage as although I've photographs of lovely blue borage from last summer - I did read that the buds sometimes appear pinkish and then turn that lovely deep blue colour. Will be a laugh if this plant morphs into 'not' Red Campion.