Wild and Weedy Wednesday: 31st May, 2023

This spring and summer I am sharing a wild flower or weed from in and around my garden each Wednesday, and today it is an Orange Hawkweed or Hawk Bit: Hieracium (or Pilosella) aurantiacum.

I actually planted one of these in my Herb Bed a few years ago, because I love them so much and they are also said to have healing properties, for example as an eye wash, for gargling or as tea. I have since discovered that there are a few patches in the meadow too; this year we have left the vast majority unmown, and we are seeing more wild flowers than usual.

I looked up this weed and found some other common names are ‘fox-and-cubs’ (perhaps due to the  colour and its silvery hairy stems?) and ‘devil’s paintbrush’. But I prefer ‘Hawkweed’, or the German ‘Habichtskraut‘; legend has it that hawks brushed their eyes with the milky substance from the stems, thus giving them excellent eyesight…

So if this pops up in a flower bed it will be allowed to stay, or perhaps moved to a more appropriate spot. It spreads by rhizome, but in my dry soil has not been problematic at all. The one in my Herb Bed is, to be precise, a cultivated form called Hieracium x rubra…

Have you seen this weed in or near your garden? Would you welcome it? 😉

I’d love to see what is growing wild and weedy in your garden right now, so do join me. I will be posting every Wednesday until I run out of weeds…. although at the moment I am having to be very selective as there are so many pretty weeds simply everywhere in May!

Happy weeding!

 

Wild and Weedy Wednesday: 26th April 2023

I am continuing my weekly look at weeds/ wild flowers with a very familiar plant to most of you…

So, when you see this photo, what is your first thought?

• Oh no, so many dandelions!  OR
• Oh, how lovely!

So do you consider them as weeds or wild flowers? 😃

In any case, this is a wonderful sight in spring. The bees are enjoying them, and Anouk looks like she approves of them as well. 😉

Yes, this week’s wild flower is the Dandelion, or Taraxacum officinale. 

It may in fact be the most common weed, growing in lawns, nooks and crannies, fields and cracks in city paving They are masters at spreading and invading tiny spaces.

I assume these grow more or less all over the world, but do let me know if they don’t grow where you live. There are hundreds of different species of them. And, like the plant I featured last week (Wild Erodium), these are also edible. A few leaves added to a salad will aid digestion due to the bitter substances they contain, and will boost your vitamin and minerals intake. (Take a look here at Cindy’s delicious salad and her wonderful bouquet!) Or add a few leaves to soup or sauces and sprinkle some flowers on top for decoration. 😃

The colour alone makes me smile…

Why not join me each Wednesday with a post about a weed or wild flower in your garden. And leave a link in the comments below.🌱

Thanks for reading

and

Happy Weeding!

😉

 

Wild and Weedy Wednesday: 19th April, 2023

I have decided to share some of the wild flowers, and/or so-called ‘weeds’, that grow in my garden and will post each Wednesday over the next few weeks. At times it may be hard to define what is a weed or a wild flower, but the Merriam Webster dictionary defines a weed as:

a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth. especially : one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants.

If anyone would like to join me, and share a local wild flower or weed each week, please do. And leave a link in the comments below. I would be really interested to see what pops up in your garden or countryside either to please or annoy you!

Today I will share a wild flower that I have noticed for the first time this year, growing here in our meadow:

Erodium cicutarium, or common stork’s bill.

The flowers are tiny, about 1 to 1.5 cm in diameter, but bright pink so immediately noticeable. According to Wikipedia, the young leaves are edible raw or cooked, tasting strongly of parsley if picked young. I have yet to try them. 😉

I haven’t spotted this pretty wild flower spreading to my flower beds yet. But I am now sure I would be able to identify it if it did attempt to invade. And I may redefine it in my book as a weed!

Perhaps you have seen this flower in your garden? Do let me know in the comments below.

😃

In a Vase on Monday: Buttermilk

Cream, yellow and white seem to be predominant colours all around us now, with the hedgerows alive with St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum), Queen Ann’s Lace (Daucus carota), golden grasses and Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), to name just a few.

I picked some wild flowers from the edges of a meadow that has not been cut at all this summer, and plonked them in a vase. But for Cathy’s meme I decided a ‘proper’ vase was needed and gathered more creams and whites and yellows for my milk jug. This was also inspired by the roadsides and hedges, and by the jug itself.

The Leucanthemum daisies and yellow Achillea ‘Parker’ were the starting point. Then Alchemilla mollis and some yellow Fennel were added, along with some Feverfew, Clematis seed heads, a white Heuchera flower, wild Yarrow and some white airy wild flowers that look a bit like cow parsley, but I don’t know what they are…. Milk Parsley perhaps?

I love the sunshine effect this vase created when I brought it inside. 😀

And here was the first vase from the meadow. I may not have identified everything correctly, as there were a few things I recognize but have never named…

Scabiosa and Galium verum (Lady’s Bedstraw)

Daucus carota

Dianthus, Chamomile, Hawkeed

Centaurea

Sweet clover (Melilotus) and Ononis

There is a large stem of Artemisia in there too, as well as various clovers, some Agrimony and some wild Yarrow (Achillea).

Our host Cathy at Rambling in the Garden is having a party with Annabelle today, so do drop by for a share in the celebrations! 😉