another plant id

bouicca21

I'm starting to plan for sorting out the communal [STRIKE] flower[/STRIKE] weed bed. There are various plants under the mess. The bed is huge, so I will tackle it in stages. In the meantime there are a few plants that I know are common but can't remember their names.

I can't work out how to attach the photos, so here is a link to three of them.
http://s304.photobucket.com/user/Bouicca/library/?sort=3&page=1

The huge shrub/tree with the berries is rather nice but being strangled by holly and bramble.

Elsewhere

The pink flowered one is a weed - willowherb. Very pretty but it will seed everywhere!

The rosette of leaves is possibly a foxglove? It might be worth leaving it to see what sort of flowers it produces.

The tree with berries is holly. Holly trees only have very prickly leaves near the ground where briwsing animals might attack them Further up they produce these single spined leaves. I thought this was common knowledge!

These are all leaves from the same holly tree

bouicca21

Never under-estimate my ignorance! There was a huge holly tree in my old garden but all the leaves were prickly (and the wretched thing was a boy so no berries). This really does look like two trees, and it has a sort of weeping habit (that other tree was very tall and upright). But if it is just one then it is holding its own very well against the bramble.

Most of the plants near the rosette are brunnera, which I have come to hate with a passion. I nearly had a fit when I saw a small one for sale in a garden centre for 8 quid. I'd pay people to take it away ...

christineperseus

The middle plant may be a borage - does it have 'prickly' leaves.
I think the last plant is either a skimea or a laurel.

Elsewhere

bouicca21 wrote: »

Most of the plants near the rosette are brunnera, which I have come to hate with a passion. I nearly had a fit when I saw a small one for sale in a garden centre for 8 quid. I'd pay people to take it away ...

I like brunnera, but it doesn't like my clay soil so isn't vigorous enough to be a pest. By applying lots of manure I managed to grow one really good specimen this year, then went out into the garden one morning to find chewed off stems encircled by rabbit droppings... I could have cried! Maybe you should buy yourself a rabbit

bouicca21

You should really really thank the rabbit. It spreads and seeds everywhere, there are even brunnera plants in the street in the grass verges, plus it has incredibly long tap roots that are almost impossible to dig out ...

I'd volunteer to take the rabbit, but I doubt it would stand a chance given the number of urban foxes round here.

Davesnave

If that's your brunnera in the middle picture, it's not brunnera!

It might well be alkanet. The flowers are similar, but the way the plant behaves isn't.

I have never known brunnera be a nuisance, though it is quite tough, and deer don't seem to like it.

bouicca21

No, I know the stuff in the photo isn't brunnera - but it is surrounded by the wretched stuff.

I can't believe no one else finds it invasive! It must really love my soil - it grows in the shady north facing back garden and in the very dry and sunny south facing front. And as I said, it's even colonising the grass verges in the street out front.

Davesnave

I don't grow the plain one, just the variegated 'Jack Frost,' which would be less vigorous anyway. But mine don't move or seed around, and everything else does here!

They're tough. I have a north facing stream bank in the shade, which becomes very dry in summer as the stream dries up and there are largish trees taking any moisture. At the base of those trees, between the roots, I have some Jack Frost and a few hellebores.

It's actually my neighbours bank, but he can't get behind the trees to see it!