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Weeds or Wildflowers?

18 years ago

Hello all!

Well, I have some plants that have started growing in my yard recently, and I am not sure what they are. The lady in the lot across from me was an avid flower gardener, but now ahe is gone, but I think some of her wildflowers may have migrated into my yards, or perhaps these are just weeds? I was hoping one of your learned flower gardeners could help. I live in NW Indiana. thank you!

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Comments (6)

Iris GW
18 years ago
The first picture has two plants: perhaps a Rubus (wild blackberry, dewberry, raspberry, etc.) and a geum.

The second picture is Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum).

I don't know the other two. You could post them in the Name that Plant forum also if you don't get enough responses here.
carol23_gw
18 years ago
The third appears to be Polygonum cuspidatum aka Japanese Knotweed and the last looks like Ornithogalum umbellatum, Star of Bethlehem.

My opinion is that they are all weeds.
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#1 resembles smart weed.I've thrown out seed mixes before and lots of weed seeds in the ground came up with them.#4 looks like a grass and #5 looks like pigweed but the photo has sunglare and you can't see the leaves straight on,but sure looks like pigweed.I had the same plants coming up on my wildflower garden.I don't buy mixes anymore because like the other gardener mentioned they usually contain non native plants and I enjoy creating my own mixes using only natives.In mixes you can't control what plants will grow where, so you have larger plants shading shorter ones.If you mix it yourself you can sow the taller plants behind the smaller ones.I've gotten lots of seeds from Wildflower Farm but it bothers me that they sell a lot of alien plants like Dames rocket,foxglove and African Daisy. I would have more respect for them if they dropped all the aliens and expanded their native wildflowers.There's a multitude of beautiful natives they don't offer.Prairie Moon and a lot of other seed sellers only sell true natives.
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If you use a photo-hosting side like Photobucket or flickr, you can put multiple photos in a single post. If your photos are on your PC or phone, you are limited to one photo per post. You should be able to add a second photo in a new post (or more than one photo in a second post, depending where your photos are stored) by replying to your original post, under Post a Follow-Up. [Sometimes GW's software thinks you're making a duplicate post, but you should be able to get around that by giving the new post a new title (in the box Subject of Posting).]
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No, it's a weed that is a royal PITA. Here's the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persicaria_maculosa. You can't compost it, as the roots and stems don't die. There are great groundcovers out there, but this isn't one of them.
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Comments (3)
yes, it totally could be. This house had a well tended garden, but in the last couple years I think the owner had some health issues, and we all know how fast weed can take over. I was curious so I let it go, one of the few I did let go. I can't see the leaves at all, they are under the cover of the hosta, and I don't think they are very attractive. But, that particular yellow colored bloom and flower shape seems to look nice to me with the lupine. I'd like to try and emulate that look with something with nicer foliage. If anyone has any suggestions as to what my bloom with the lupine and resemble that sort of color and light, airy, flower, I'd love to hear them. Thank you linaria_gw!
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User
18 years ago
The last could also be crocus. You should know shortly as the star of bethlehem blooms about now in my area.
ladyslppr
18 years ago
I agree the third looks like Japanese Knotweed, which is not native, very invasive, and very hard to eradicate once it gets established. I would kill it immediately. The second is deadnettle, a weed.
malanga
Original Author
18 years ago
Thank you all for your help. The only one I am still unsure of is the first one. I do not think it is a Rubus or a Geum, as I looked at pictures of these online and they do not seem to match. The other three I am sure are correct. I will leave the Deadnettle and Star of Bethlehem for now, as I think they look nice, but the Japanese Knotwood I pulled out after digging around throughly to make sure I got it all.
dbs_illinois_4
18 years ago
That first one looks just like the White Avens (Geum canadense) that I have quite a bit of in my yard. The bottom rosette leaves and the leaves on the stalk are so different that they can look like different plants. It is native,though weedy, so I let it grow most places I find it. Then start pulling it out as I get more "better" plants.

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