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Help to identify a plant.
This plant has arrived in my garden. I have let it flower to aid identification but have no idea whether it is friend or foe. I have never seen this in any of my friends gardens or in any garden I have visited but the bees seem to love it. It has quite a strange scent - like mild discenfectant and the stems are too tough to break by hand. It has grown to about 3 ft.high. When it first appeared I thought, by the shape and feel of the leaves it was a fox glove but now its grown it obviously isn't. Would love to here what you think so I know whether to compost it or not before it sets seed. Thank you
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It's phlomis russeliana SusiA
Phlomis russeliana. Look lovely in brown in the winter with a bit of frost
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thank you so much. Looked it up and so it is. Well that was quick. Thank you. Just wandering now how it came to be in my garden. Interesting.
It seeds about quite well, maybe it hitched in with something else
In the sticks near Peterborough
It grows a bigger plant each year but is not troublesome, seeding around, in spite of the mystery appearence in your garden. If it does turn up without notice I would say thanks!! Leave seed heads on over winter for effect.
Hello SusiA -
this is phlomis and it loves the sun, but be warned, the leaves contain something that. if allowed to fall to the ground, inhibit the growth of anything underneath. In wet conditions it can put on a lot of growth in a season so I cut mine back to a manageable size in autumn - but wear long sleeves because something in the leaves is quite abrasive to the skin. It is a wonderful evergreen shrub though and very tolerant of drought conditions, as is the pink form.
this is the herbaceous perennial gg, there is no underneath space.
Phlomis fruticosa, shrub. mine flops so much it nothing could get underneath including the mower when it comes over the lawn. worse than usual this year after last year's wet.
also have grandiflora, shrub, more upright but more inclined to snap off or havebits die off in winter. Never noticed problem on skin but I've such a collection of scratches, bruises, bites and stings that I probably wouldn't notice
Had a pink one ?alpina, but that died.
In the sticks near Peterborough
no, it wasn't alpina, that's what I've grown from seed this year. It was italica
In the sticks near Peterborough
Nettles don't seem to have any problem growing under my P. fruticosa.
bindweed will grow through it
In the sticks near Peterborough