My cohort on the Landscaping site, David Beaulieu, was posting about goldenrod the other day and I happened to notice it was already blooming along the roadside. I tend to think it blooms later in the season, probably because my 'Fireworks' cultivar doesn't fire up until almost frost.
The species goldenrod is a stunning plant - in the wild. It travels too fast and far for a place in my garden border. Although a lot of wild and weedy plants, like the Joe Pye and Queen Anne's Lace sharing the photo here, have been corralled down to manageable size and behavior, I still love seeing them untamed. (We won't mention the purple loosestrife.)
A few years ago I asked what your favorite weed flower was. Mine was blue chicory. Others mentioned lupines, wild orchids, penstemon and hollyhocks. Wouldn't you love to have those weeds in your garden? Well, I'm asking again.
What's Your Favorite Wildflower or Weed?
Photo: © Marie Iannotti
Comments
My favorite weed/wildflower is Forget-Me-Nots. Athough their prickly little seeds stick to everything in the fall, their sprays of tiny china-blue flowers with pale yellow centers nodding in the morning sun are simply entrancing.
They are very pretty, but I haven’t planted them since I was covered in their prickly seeds while weeding about 11 years ago. I guess I still have Forget-Me-Not issues. I still enjoy them in other people’s garden, though.
i love joe pye weed,its so tall and stately, but it wont grow in “my garden”. it is everywhere here, so i do get to enjoy it in the wild. my other favorite is butterfly weed. it dots the banks and fields with such a beautiful orange glow! sadly, we have tried to transplant it but it doesnt come back. again, i’ll just admire it from afar. tithonia “torch” adds that great orange color to our garden, it will suffice!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen butterfly weed growing wild. Lots of milkweed, its cousin, but no beautiful butterfly weed. I used to have some in my garden, but it seems to have disappeared.
I started it from seed. It has a long taproot and doesn’t like being transplanted. It was also the last plant up in the spring, so I always thought it had died. Looks like it finally did.
I love hesperis matronalis, dame’s rocket, which grows in abundance in my New York State locale. Its white and lavender stalks brighten the roadsides in spring.
Personally, I’m a big fan of the wild Indian Blanket Basketflower. It blooms in late spring here in North Texas, and a few times has almost caused me to have a wreck from stopping to look (oops!)
Also, how could I be a good Texan without mentioning Bluebonnets? Some years they form an almost solid carpet in areas and are absolutely beautiful.
Wild sunflowers are always a treat around here too, beginning in mid summer and going strong for several months.
Ox-Eye daisy is sometimes a treat in my yard, even though I know it is classified as an invasive, it is still nice sometimes to see it popping up in my lawn. (dandelions are welcome too, personally I’m a sucker for color….)
Ok, so that was more than one favorite but it’s hard to pick just one!
Always and forever, my favorite is Queen Ann’s Lace. So beautiful, especially with wild Black Eyed Susan, along our roads in New Hampshire and Vermont. Alas, I’ve never been able to put one in my garden.
I agree Stephen, it’s hard to pick ‘just one’. I too am a fan of the Blue Chickory and had some growing in my garden once but it has since disappeared. I also like the Queen of The Prairie that grows in those sunny moist spots here in the great NE….lovely baby pink plumes dance in the breezes
Yes, it is hard to pick just one. Stephen, you really made me laugh with “dandelions are welcome too, personally I’m a sucker for color….” I’m not sure I would go that far.
Joan, I once grew Dame’s Rocket. They still sell the seeds here. Everyone told me I’d be sorry for planting it, but it has never come back. Go figure.
I love Indian Strawberry. It’s considered a weed, but I find it works
great as a groundcover. I especially like to use it under my White
Birches where the White Birch roots make digging impossible.
The fluffy foliage of this groundcover is perfect to set flower bowls
in, under my Birch Trees. It’s also easy to clear an area if I do
want to plant someyhing else.
Diana, I used to pull it out whenever I saw it, but someone else suggested I let it be and I think you’re right, it does make a nice ground cover. It is not any where near as aggressive as other creeping “weeds”, at least for me.
For me it’s the violets. I haven’t had ‘violet ones since I moved to Buffalo (NY), but I have yellow ones making inroads. Like the strawberry, it makes a wonderful ground cover, better than grass because it doesn’t need mowing as much!
Now I’m working on wild strawberry. If I can get *that* to grow in my lawn, I’ll be ecstatic.
But I mow around the blue chicory. Love that too.
Blue cardinal flower (lobelia syphilatica) pops up everywhere in my moist soil, and is out now when most perennials have bloomed. I also love dame’s rocket, and find it easy to pull up where unwanted. I deadhead, and it blooms for a long time!
My fav is the spotted horsemint I disovered when we moved up here to central fl. It was here before me, and, to my delight comes back each year about now. The bees love it, so many of the other plants in the garden are pollenated, too.
Field poppies – symbolic and beautiful!
Probably not a wildflower as much as a prairie plant. But I have cup plants and compass plants in my gardens. I just love how hardy they are. I have other praire plants as well ( wild quanine, Indian platain, ect) and find them interesting. Of course I am hard pressed to name a favorite.
There as so many great suggestions here. Thanks for the ideas.
I love cup plant. It’s one of the strangest plants I’ve ever seen, growing 6 ft. tall with a mop of daisy flowers on top. It’s a native, so I guess it qualifies as a wildflower. It certainly springs up where ever it wants, in my garden.
I love 4 o’clocks. They are are like violas with lots of color.