In article , Sacha
writes
On 2011-06-12 08:08:48 +0100, Chris Hogg said:

On Sat, 11 Jun 2011 23:32:10 +0100, Spider wrote:

On 11/06/2011 22:47, Mike Lyle wrote:
On Sat, 11 Jun 2011 13:53:00 -0700 (PDT), Dave Hill
wrote:

On Jun 11, 9:47 pm, wrote:
I wonder if anybody knows what this is? It's a self sown seedling, I
have 3 of them and I'm sure I've seen more seedlings when weeding so
it could probably become a nuisance if I'm not careful. I'm quite
happy to have a few of them around though - I quite like it and it
grows in some of those difficult to plant hot dry poor places.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvan4...t-721576269091
32...http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvan4...in/set-7215762
6909132364http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvan4/5808762591/in/set-72157626909132...

There's
also a selection of recent photos of my garden in that set.
Rod
Try purple loosestrife
http://www.reallywildflowers.co.uk/p...e_loosestrife/
I'm not sure, Dave. I can't get my eyes to focus down properly,
but I
have the impression of Purple toadflax, _Linaria purpurea_. If the
flowers are rather like tiny snapdragons, that's what it is, and
whatever you do, Rod, don't let it seed: very pretty, but give it an
inch...been there (still am, in fact), done that. Particularly
confusing among lavenders.
If not snap-ish, then, yes, looks like purple loosestrife
(Ophelia's
"long purples").

Yes, I agree it's Linaria purpuria. I have it and love it. Any
plant
that attracts bees is okay with me.
Ditto and ditto. My wife likes it and we have clumps of it between
shrubs as infill. But it seeds like crazy, so cut off the old flower
heads before the seeds ripen. I also cut ours down to the ground in
the autumn, and they come again the following year.

I love it and rather like the way it plonks itself wherever it feels
like going! We have some poking out of a low wall here and we certainly
didn't put it there but it looks charming.

I am feeling confused, is it purple toadflax (linaria purpuria) we are
talking about here?

It looks to me that the reallywildflowers catalogue shows a picture of
toadflax with a description of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)
which I found confusing. I wonder what you get if you buy some.

http://www.habitas.org.uk/flora/species.asp?item=4063
http://www.plantpress.com/wildlife/o...oosestrife.php
http://www.reallywildflowers.co.uk/p...e_loosestrife/
--
Ellis Morgan