Gardening questions and chat!

Yep, sorry guys. Just done the same via google image search and first option - what they call seaside goldenrod. :slight_smile:

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Nothing I’ve planted so a weed I’m presuming?

Hmmm not sure after looking at pics it seems to have true stems where mine is just coming out of the ground :see_no_evil:

Not necessarily. Over the years I’ve had nigella, papaver poppies. orchids, field poppies all come up in our garden, none of which I planted. They are definitely NOT weeds. :slight_smile:

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If it is golden rod then let it flower as it’s pretty, and then chop it down before it sets seed as otherwise you will have 800 of them next year.

Same if it’s a michaelmas daisy.

Anyway I think you have to leave it now so we get to find out what it really is! Is it somewhere yiu want to put something else?

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Yes a poor hydrangea still in its little pot from last year :rofl:

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I think we felt that it was too dry a spot for a hydrangea. Is there anywhere else you could put it? They like shade and moisture…

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Sadly a lot of our garden is super shallow! It gets morning sun and afternoon shade. As it is where we sit it is most likely to get watered :rofl:

Is this a wild orchid? Or a weed?

I didn’t get to my potatoes last weekend and they were still quite small. They have literally doubled in size this week. I’m worried I haven’t done it high enough, one thing I read said to only leave 5 cm bit can’t see how I can do that! Does this look OK?

And some of my pretty flowers :heart_eyes: it’s not all bad news and questions in my garden :rofl:


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It’s an orchid, probably a goat orchid*. Gets tall but it isn’t spectacular colour- or shape-wise like pyramid orchids bee orchids etc.

  • Probably called something quite different in English eg Medusa’s hair, adder’s tongue, Rapunzel’s pigtails

They aren’t as glam as this closeup looks and they smell a bit bad.

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Oh I won’t kill myself mowing around them all then! They are in the middle of a lawn!

They look like this not in bloom, same as yours, acc to the identification site I checked with, oh and they are lizard orchids in English. You only smell them really close up, I expect it’s to attract flies.

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Mow around it! They are increasingly rare. Apparently only about 80 patches left in the UK as people dig them up and sell them.

We think they are spectacular, this is our dog guarding one

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I love your dog! I have them all over my garden and lots of other sorts as well :slightly_smiling_face:

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Lizard orchid - and smells of male goat! I’ve a whole lawn of them in front of our cottage/gite + pyramid orchids and bee orchids. I have to make sure I cut the lizard orchid heads off when our gite guests arrive. :nauseated_face:

Don’t you believe it! We have then everywhere in our garden and they come up in all sorts of odd hidden corners and oh boy do I know when they are beginning to go over!

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That’s so weird, here they don’t smell unless you are really close. But obv there is a reason we call them billy-goat orchid in French :rofl::rofl:

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That’s awful!!!

Maybe the smell is a bit like asparagus pee and not everyone smells it the same? I have to squish my nose into a lizard orchid to smell it.

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Any thoughts on if I’ve mounded my potatoes enough? :rofl:

I haven’t grown them in years but I would have thought you could do more. I thought the whole idea of mounding them up was to get the extra roots growing up the stem and more potatoes as a result. So you can do as much as you like.

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