Wildflower or Weed?

nmm

Hi, I wonder if you could help, does anyone know what the serrated leaf plant is? It came from a pack of wildflower seeds and the plant app I have isn't helping, thanks in advance

Carrot007

There is no such thing as a weed. It's just a term to make people happy about getting rid of some plant or other.

Can't really tell what it is from the picture.

(Most people would call all wild flowers a weed though).

Farway

Carrot007 said:

There is no such thing as a weed. It's just a term to make people happy about getting rid of some plant or other.

Can't really tell what it is from the picture.

(Most people would call all wild flowers a weed though).

Too true, I volunteer tending a car park border.

Sowed wild flowers and folk complained it was full of weeds, all assuming daises, poppies etc are weeds as they just grow and aren't in straight lines

If you sowed wild flowers  expect to have surprises

Davesnave

Carrot007 said:

There is no such thing as a weed. It's just a term to make people happy about getting rid of some plant or other.

 I think a weed is any unwanted plant that arises naturally on a plot. Right now, we have literally hundreds of seedlings from conventional garden plants that will need weeding-out if our garden is to stay as we want it to look.

People have a natural organising tendency, so they put certain plants into a box called 'weeds.' That's fine, until we want to ID a wild plant that's not commonly seen, when scouring the 'weed box' reveals nothing that looks right and the alternative box, 'wild plants,' is so extensive! At first I thought the mystery plant might be teasel, but that doesn't look correct, even if it's beyond the rosette stage. Teasel is a good example of a plant where people have some disagreement nowadays over whether it's a 'weed' or not. Certainly many grow it deliberately so it goes into wildflower mixes.

madjackslam

I wondered about, and dismissed, teasel.
When a "garden plant" starts to seed around to such an extent that it becomes a weed it makes me happy, because I always think I can leave them if I can't think of anything better to do, and it will look fine. But I've also become more tolerant of "weeds" as garden flowers, so clover, cowslip and ox-eye daisy are gradually making inroads on the lawn. This seems like an easier (and moneysaving!) way of encouraging wildflowers than the complicated soil impoverishment, yellow rattle, etc. I also wonder if genetically it's better, as it's supporting local wildflower populations, which might be subtly different.

-taff

I'm getting himalayan balsam

Davesnave

-taff said:

I'm getting himalayan balsam

It's a good match in the early stages, but here, I'm wading through them at chest height now (not on my patch I should add! ) And in a wildflower mix???

nmm

thanks for the replies, I really wanted to know if it will flower eventually. The picture in the listing showed lots of nice flowers none of which have grown, haha.