Garden Question Time - What is this plant?

Only if you know about gardens :wink: IT, motirbikes, beer - I know a thing or two , nit gardens​:laughing:
I certainly don’t want to harm the bees, we seem to be a haven for them here. I will bring it down to size once the flowers are gone, though.

The bees will be your friends for life…

and so long as you don’t want a bowling-green lawn… this stuff and lots of other wild herbs/plants that crop up in the grass… it all does actually make a lovely wild meadow.

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Excellent news Martin !! Lots of wild stuff and weeds (!) are very good for the wildlife - that’s my excuse anyway.
regards
Beth

Speedwell. They are a member of the veronica family I think.

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It is germander speedwell, also known as eyebright.

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The invasive plant to be on the lookout for is the very common Japanese Knotweed. The roots of this plant can be so de-stabilising for nearby properties that mortgage inspectors in the UK will refuse your request for a loan if they discover its presence in adjacent gardens. (This is not yet the position with mortgage providers in France but the danger remains the same). Look how it just forces its way up through the tarmac.

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Not to be confused with Leycesteria which we grew in abundance back in UK…

last year, I had to stop a friend in Jarnac, who was destroying it thinking it was the 'noxious knotweed… :thinking:

Aha, yes Bob, I know that one. IIRC, it was planted across the UK by well-to-do Victorians, keen to show their gardening diversity.
Is it as widespread in France as it was in the UK?

Didn’t your friend know it is knotweed if it grows by the side of the road?

Jane… sadly, not all Knotweed grows on the roadside… and when he saw the Leycesteria… looking very similar… he panicked… :zipper_mouth_face:

Just had to Google IIRC!

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Indeed Martin, those bloody Victorians wanting to bring back a taste of the colonies also imported the Giant Hogweed, which although an attractive plant, can be very dangerous -

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/giant-hogweed-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-toxic-plant-10388258.html

Regarding your question about Japanese Knotweed, yes it IS widespread in France, but because the French are not as obsessed with gardening as we tend to be, there is not the same awareness, even at the official level, of the risks involved to nearby properties by the presenceof this plant.

The French also seem to have a highly tolerant attitude to ragwort.

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Well I suppose “Stinking Willie”, to use ragwort’s amusing common name, although a pest for farmers is
harmless enough for the rest of us Jane, but the knotweed and hogweed are a real danger. Near where I am, there is a railway embankment with a bridge crossing over a narrow but well used lane and that bridge and surrounding land, publicly owned of course, are absolutely overgrown with knotweed…

And hogweed, which can give you a very nasty burn, seems to be seeded by the wind or by birds,
so look out for it in your garden :slight_smile:

Ragwort in hay is poisonous and cumulative, especially to horses.
As cattle do not usually have such long productive lives, it is not seen as the pest it really is.
Neither France or the UK seems to pay much attention to noxious weed laws, hence the amount of ragwort seen on UK motorways.

Thanks for that, I knew about the problem for cattle maintenance but wasn’t aware of the risk of ragwort to horses.

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They won’t usually eat it when grazing is plentiful because it is bitter (so if very hungry and there’s not much else, or the plants are young they will) and in hay they will chomp it down happily and it causes liver damage either way which is often fatal.

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These are pretty to see after a dark winter :wink: . then it will turn yellow with buttercups …then white daisies…then yellow dandelions !!! then brown as the suns dried it all up !! lol. lucky when we get green grass and now weeds …at least in my gar
den !! lol . enjoy whatever you get …

It is mch more dangerous for horses so I am glad that you know now.

Bob Wilkinson

    March 9

Thanks for that, I knew about the problem for cattle maintenance but wasn’t aware of the risk of ragwort to horses.


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In Reply To

Jane Williamson

    March 9

Ragwort in hay is poisonous and cumulative, especially to horses. As cattle do not usually have such long productive lives, it is not seen as the pest it really is. Neither France or the UK seems to pay much attention to noxious weed laws, hence the amount of ragwort seen on UK motorways.


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