Wild flower identification
 

I know nothing about gardening, but there are two sets of (wild?)
flowers/plants just behind my garden fence, and I was wondering if someone
could put a name to them, please. The photos aren't the best quality, but
hopefully they can be identified easily. I live on the outskirts of London,
if my location is needed.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant1.jpg

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant2.jpg

Thomas

In article , Thomas
writes
I know nothing about gardening, but there are two sets of (wild?)
flowers/plants just behind my garden fence, and I was wondering if someone
could put a name to them, please. The photos aren't the best quality, but
hopefully they can be identified easily. I live on the outskirts of London,
if my location is needed.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant1.jpg

Linaria. Not wild, but widely escaped from gardens. there's a pink
flowered on as well.

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant2.jpg

Michaelmas daisy. Again an escaping garden plant.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

"Thomas" wrote in message
...
I know nothing about gardening, but there are two sets of (wild?)
flowers/plants just behind my garden fence, and I was wondering if someone
could put a name to them, please. The photos aren't the best quality, but
hopefully they can be identified easily. I live on the outskirts of
London,
if my location is needed.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant1.jpg

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant2.jpg

Thomas

Plant 2 is an invasive alien Purple Loosestrife. I was given it in a
'Cottage Garden Mix' packet of seeds. Considering its causing so much
trouble in conservation wetlands, it does amazingly well in my dry chalky
gravelly dry soil. I have it everywhere!

2.7 million seeds per plant per year aint bad going!

http://www.bruderhof.co.uk/articles/...oosestrife.htm

Trevor Appleton wrote:
"Thomas" wrote in message
...
I know nothing about gardening, but there are two sets of (wild?)
flowers/plants just behind my garden fence, and I was wondering if
someone could put a name to them, please. The photos aren't the
best quality, but hopefully they can be identified easily. I live
on the outskirts of London,
if my location is needed.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant1.jpg

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant2.jpg

Thomas

Plant 2 is an invasive alien Purple Loosestrife. I was given it in
a
'Cottage Garden Mix' packet of seeds. Considering its causing so
much
trouble in conservation wetlands, it does amazingly well in my dry
chalky gravelly dry soil. I have it everywhere!

2.7 million seeds per plant per year aint bad going!

http://www.bruderhof.co.uk/articles/...oosestrife.htm

I'd say Plant 2 was a Michaelmas daisy: there are a few wild or
naturalized species, and I think yours is a garden variety, and very
nice too.

(I think Trevor's got the numbers swapped, as I usually do in these
circumstances.) Plant 1 might be a garden variety of Purple
Loosestrife, but I'm not at all su I'd want to see a close-up: the
leaves don't seem right, and I'm not sure about the flowering habit
we see here.

If you want to risk getting hooked, Thomas, I recommend the Collins
Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe. I see
my faithful copy cost me £1.80 in 1974, so I suppose it must be about
ten or twelve quid now. The Collins Gem Guide is a lot cheaper, but a
lot less thorough. In any case, I hope you won't do anything to
discourage the plants. Another garden flower which loves appearing in
daft places and staying there for ever is the hollyhock. And lower
down, the little Mexican Sneezewort, with flowers very like our lawn
Daisy, is popping up a bit these days, too.

Mike.

The message -service-com
from "Trevor Appleton" contains
these words:

Plant 2 is an invasive alien Purple Loosestrife. I was given it in a
'Cottage Garden Mix' packet of seeds. Considering its causing so much
trouble in conservation wetlands, it does amazingly well in my dry chalky
gravelly dry soil. I have it everywhere!

It's nothing like purple loostrife. It's (as Kay says) michaelmas daisy.
Purple loostrife can be seen in hedges and dmp places, and has a tall
spike which is pinkish-purple, and lanceolate leaves with very stubby
stalks, the axils of the upper ones bearing single, small, five-petalled
flowers.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

In article -service-com, Trevor
Appleton writes

"Thomas" wrote in message
...
I know nothing about gardening, but there are two sets of (wild?)
flowers/plants just behind my garden fence, and I was wondering if someone
could put a name to them, please. The photos aren't the best quality, but
hopefully they can be identified easily. I live on the outskirts of
London,
if my location is needed.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant1.jpg

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant2.jpg

Thomas

Plant 2 is an invasive alien Purple Loosestrife.

If by Purple Loosestrife you mean Lythrum salicaria, then the leaves are
too narrow and smooth. I agree the flower spike is similar, but I took
the flowers to be snapdragon type (it's difficult to see this detail on
the photo) in which case it wouldn't be a Lythrum.


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

"Thomas" wrote in message
...
I know nothing about gardening, but there are two sets of (wild?)
flowers/plants just behind my garden fence, and I was wondering if
someone
could put a name to them, please. The photos aren't the best
quality, but
hopefully they can be identified easily. I live on the outskirts of
London,
if my location is needed.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant1.jpg

This one is probably purple loosestrife, but the picture is too badly
focussed to be quite certain. It is an invasive weed.

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant2.jpg

This one is a Michaelmas daisy. It must be a garden escapee.

Franz

"Trevor Appleton" wrote in
message -service-com...

"Thomas" wrote in message
...
I know nothing about gardening, but there are two sets of (wild?)
flowers/plants just behind my garden fence, and I was wondering if
someone
could put a name to them, please. The photos aren't the best
quality, but
hopefully they can be identified easily. I live on the outskirts
of
London,
if my location is needed.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant1.jpg

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant2.jpg

Thomas

Plant 2 is an invasive alien Purple Loosestrife. I was given it in a
'Cottage Garden Mix' packet of seeds. Considering its causing so
much
trouble in conservation wetlands, it does amazingly well in my dry
chalky
gravelly dry soil. I have it everywhere!

You are referring to plant 1.

2.7 million seeds per plant per year aint bad going!

http://www.bruderhof.co.uk/articles/...oosestrife.htm

Franz

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant1.jpg

http://www.aoqs33.dsl.pipex.com/plant2.jpg

Thomas

Plant 2 is an invasive alien Purple Loosestrife. I was given it in
a
'Cottage Garden Mix' packet of seeds. Considering its causing so
much
trouble in conservation wetlands, it does amazingly well in my dry
chalky gravelly dry soil. I have it everywhere!

2.7 million seeds per plant per year aint bad going!

http://www.bruderhof.co.uk/articles/...oosestrife.htm

I'd say Plant 2 was a Michaelmas daisy: there are a few wild or
naturalized species, and I think yours is a garden variety, and very
nice too.

(I think Trevor's got the numbers swapped, as I usually do in these
circumstances.) Plant 1 might be a garden variety of Purple
Loosestrife, but I'm not at all su I'd want to see a close-up: the
leaves don't seem right, and I'm not sure about the flowering habit
we see here.

I'd say (now that I've looked at the first pic) that you're right, and
wonder if it might be a cultivated Veronica of some sort?

I don't think it is an indiginous wild plant - it's certainly not one I
recognise either from RL or from books.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Kay contains these words:

If by Purple Loosestrife you mean Lythrum salicaria, then the leaves are
too narrow and smooth. I agree the flower spike is similar, but I took
the flowers to be snapdragon type (it's difficult to see this detail on
the photo) in which case it wouldn't be a Lythrum.

That's what I thought at first, but the pic is a bit fuzzy and I'm not
sure the flowers are snapdragony. I have Lithrum purpurea in the garden,
and the flower spikes are not so - so - ample.

Of course, there may be a cultivated variety of that.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

In article , Jaques
d'Alltrades writes
I'd say (now that I've looked at the first pic) that you're right, and
wonder if it might be a cultivated Veronica of some sort?

Again, there's the leaf problem - the leaves in the pic are very long
and thin.

I don't think it is an indiginous wild plant - it's certainly not one I
recognise either from RL or from books.


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

The message
from Kay contains these words:
In article , Jaques
d'Alltrades writes

I'd say (now that I've looked at the first pic) that you're right, and
wonder if it might be a cultivated Veronica of some sort?

Again, there's the leaf problem - the leaves in the pic are very long
and thin.

I don't think it is an indiginous wild plant - it's certainly not one I
recognise either from RL or from books.

We'd better demand a clearer picture innit.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

In article , Kay
writes
In article , Jaques
d'Alltrades writes
I'd say (now that I've looked at the first pic) that you're right, and
wonder if it might be a cultivated Veronica of some sort?

Again, there's the leaf problem - the leaves in the pic are very long
and thin.

I don't think it is an indiginous wild plant - it's certainly not one I
recognise either from RL or from books.


My first thought was that it was a Sidalcea, but I then decided that the
picture wasn't good enough for me to tell. (Are the leaves digitate or
lanceolate?) I was willing to believe the identification as Linaria
upthread, but looking again the flowers don't seem to be the right shape
- no spurs, but perhaps that's just the angle. The flower colour isn't
right for Sidalcea - I don't think they approach that close to purple -
but digital cameras don't always get colours right, and it's pinks and
purples I've found to be most problematic.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley
http://www.malvaceae.info/Genera/Sidalcea/gallery.html