Compare leaves to convolvulus sp. (one of the bindweed types).

Many are nasty invasives that quickly spread and try to take over the world.

Yes, looks like Convolvulus arvensis. But I don't know if that is a candidate in Ca.

"quickly spread and try to take over the world" - sure sounds like this! Looking at the pictures it seems likely that it is indeed field bindweed, darn! It's so pretty I hate to learn that it's actually a noxious purveyor of destruction. I wonder if I let it keep growing, would it kill my 4x4x4ft salvia bush and the nearby young apple tree?? This was the spot I had planned to plant comfrey, I wonder who would win that fight, comfrey or bindweed.....?

No! Don't plant Comfrey in a prime spot. It will spread and is very hard to eradicate. It also needs a lot of moisture. Stick it in a corner somewhere it can't take over. Which plant would win in a fight depends on the conditions. Moist, deep, fertile and slightly shady - comfrey wins. Its a native of riversides and ditches. Drier, faster draining and sunny - Convolulus arvensis wins. Its a native of arable field margins and bare open wasteland.

You won't think it's "pretty" once it smothers your plants. Just imagine who aggressive it is a humid, wetter climate!

Not sure what you mean by don't plant comfrey in a prime spot? My fruit trees are the star of my garden. The whole backyard is set up like a mini orchard, i have a handful of rose bushes, but the rest of the plants going in will all be part of fruit tree guilds. Most of the yard is unplanted right now just because I scraped everything back to start from scratch. Hopefully there will be a comfrey (or a few) near each tree, that was my plan. Is this a bad idea? I know comfrey spread a lot, but thats the price you pay, right? Every corner has fruit trees so there isnt a great out of the way spot anywhere. Just a big open planned rectangle with 19 small trees!

There's no reason to plant comfrey near your trees. It is an aggressive and robust plant which needs a big patch to itself. It is very hard to remove If you want to use it for composting or plant fertiliser you cut the leaves off. The plant itself has no effect on its neighbours apart from using up their water. I do grow and use comfrey on my allotment but it is confined to a patch near the compost bins. No way would I grow it in the main garden. One plant will spread cover many square feet and will not play well with other plants.

Well, that may be. But many of the permaculture blogs etc which I've looked at seem to be repeating anecdotal information without any experience or critical appraisal. Comfrey is useful as a fertiliser after harvesting. It has deep tap roots which can access nutrients far down and it attracts pollinators. So by all means grow it (I do) but not in completion with the trees. And you don't need more than a couple of plants. They'll soon form a large patch. Try to get Bocking 14, if you can.

I am speaking on behalf of the Bumblebee Federation who approve of, and wholheartedly support Tristan's original dream plan to plant Comfrey around her fruit trees.

Jay, could you explain a little? To avoid hijaking the thread, maybe you could send me a message?

I forgot how to do that. It was basically another one of my twisted gags. I am so glad someone gave the o.p. a Stern warning about planting Comfrey.It is very easy to plant ,but nearly impossible to get rid of. I only had it in one spot,but the rough look of the plant outweighed the other purported benefits so I decided to remove it which took 2 or three years of backbreaking,heavy shovelling.This was just one small spot it was growing in! So the thought of having a large area covered in it is overwhelming.Major machinery and manpower would be needed to remove that much Comfrey. I have been reading first hand reports from people who have grown it around fruit trees and who claim it to be a miracle elixir. I don't think any real scientific studies have been done on Comfrey's effect on fruit trees. I think maybe it has a lot to do with root structures.Comfrey has deep roots and is an accumulate plant,so would it be as beneficial for a deep rooted Meyer lemon as it would be for a shallower apple tree.Thing is I have a small garden and no room for fruit trees,but if I had a large enough lot I myself would experiment and have 2 identical fruit trees,one surrounded by Comfrey,and the other without Comfrey nearby, and then compare the trees performances over a period of years.To me,Comfrey is a little too hard on the eyes,so I won't have it in my flower beds,but I just got this cool idea to plant some next to my compost pile.First though, I should explore to make sure there isn't a small remnant of it imbedded in the weeds at the back of the yard. I heard this line Booking 14 and thought someone didn't have their morning coffee,so out of confusion I googled it and discovered it's a Comfrey cultivar.Apparantly sometimes people do know what they are talking about even when we don't think they know what they are talking about. I feel extremely humbled.Good feelings to all here.

Anna, please feel free to hijack! I'm getting ready to plant the area up so i would welcome additional information before I make my final decision. There's a lot of talk about what an aggressive spreader comfrey is, but also what great benefits it brings. So there is good reason to sequester it, but also perhaps equally good reason to put it near fruit trees - and unfortunately, yes, most of the information is anecdotal so it's hard to tell which advice to follow. This blog post made me lean towards planting them around trees: https://permaculturenews.org/2014/03/18/comfrey-really-improve-soil/

Virtually every square foot is occupied by trees in my yard. I have them from corner to corner in a grid. So any plants I decide to put anywhere in my yard are sort of automatically near a tree anyways. Its just an empty, full sun, clay-ey, droughty rectangle.

Floral uk, how big has your comfrey patch spread to? ? I would be happy to have a 4x4 patch but larger than that is not *totally* ideal. I have comfrey seedlings ready to go, but they are not sterile as far as I know. I intended to chop plants into mulch before they set seed so as to contain. Will that be somewhat effective? Is there another way they spread besides seed? I know they can propagate from root fragments, but i dont know if this means they will spread underground without my help. I'd love to hear about your experiences!

Jay, if you have any other fruit tree guild suggestions, I'm always looking for advice!!

Jay, I meant regarding the bumblebees, how does comfrey benefit them?

My comfrey patch is now an irregular area about 30 sq feet. It is right in a corner beyond the compost bins, the junk pile and the rhubarb and bordered on two sides by a mown path. Comfrey spreads by rhizomes as well as seed. I cut it several times a year, let it wilt and spread it among my vegetables or add to the compost heap. You can also steep it in water to make a liquid fertiliser.

Hi Anna, bumblebees seem to really love feeding on Comfrey's blue flowers,just like they are very fond of Comfrey's close relatives the herb Borage and Virginia Bluebells. I do love the look of Comfrey's flowers.It's kind of like having a second flush of Bluebell flowers on a bigger,stronger,more robust plant. It's delightful watching them sticking their furry bodies halfway into each tubular flower.

I think Comfrey spreads a lot more through it's root system than it's seeds. I never had a problem with seedlings,in fact I don't remember ever seeing any ever.Perhaps it would be wiser to start out small and plant it near one or two trees.That way you can experience it for awhile and see first-hand what effect it has on the trees.You will see how it behaves in your clay soil and get a better idea of what to expect should you plant more.You will also probably get enough plant material from that small planting to put around all the other trees if you still wish to do so. I don't think anyone has mentioned the ability of Comfrey to speed up the healing process of scratches and cuts.It contains a chemical that works a lot better than Aloe vera.People will go on about how great using Allow Vera is and you can smile inside knowing you have something better. You've got Comfrey.

Not all Comfrey has blue flowers. C officinalis varies from white through pink to mauvish blue, often on the same plant. Russian comfrey, including Bocking 14 tends to be more blue. Mine is a creamish flowered species, S grandiflorum.

Yeah,there seems to be that same color change going on in Mertensia and Pulmonaria.Bees see flowers in a different spectrum than we do, so whether they are blue,cream or mauve they still know that they're looking at the good stuff.

Thanks for the info guys, this is really helpful. The internet seems divided on comfrey, with a ton of people saying you absolutely *must* plant it near every fruit tree. With the exception 6 rose bushes, 1 wysteria, and 3 grape vines, my yard is all about the trees, so my goal is to do whats best for them. I have revised my plan to just trial comfrey in one spot in the backyard to see how it grows.

Floral uk, how long did it take the plant to spread that much? I'm wondering how long I have to wait and see before know if I can safely plant them all around. I've read several accounts of people (on this forum, too) whose comfrey never spread, and hopefully I'll get lucky.

Jay, I have read comfrey is great for the bees! I intend to select plants with bees in mind, for the benefit of the trees. Right now, for instance, the whole yard is cover cropped with clover, and my salvias are a hotbed of bee activity. I love bees.

Heres a question: i have 10 comfrey seedlings with potentially dozens more on the way, what should I do with them? I hate to just throw seedlings away. Can I keep them in pots? Give them to neighbors? (with a warning label, of course!)