Wildflower or Weed

[grammyoh]

My flower beds have suffered from lack of attention this summer. I have spent several weeks recovering from knee surgery. Several more people live in this house but no one has the time or interest in the flowers. I have been out weeding this week and OH!MY! The weeds have almost taken over. I have one bed pretty well cleaned up. The weeds are large so not as bad as it looked. Many tall or spreading things. I was surprised to find several tall yellow  evening primrose in the flower bed. They were all in one section, if birds did this the sure did a good job spacing them! I removed most of them leaving 3 nice blooming ones in what would have been empty space. I also have one very pretty wild New England aster that I have taken care of for a few years. It's so pretty when in bloom. I know a weed is any plant growing in a unwanted place. Did I pull weeds and keep flowers?? Does any one else cultivate wildflowers/weeds in your flower beds? At one time I had a huge poke plant that came back every yr and grew to about 6'ft tall. I liked it's shape.

[plantdoctor]

I have some wildflowers, but not a lot.  The ones I do have, I make sure to deadhead so they do not self sow every where.  Many years ago when I 1st started my flower gardens, I spent many hours digging flowers out of road ditches to fill up areas in the gardens.  A few years later I was pulling them outall over the place and questioning why I ever did that...lol. A lesson learned that hard way.  

There are several flowers that I work hard to keep alive in zone 4, while gardeners in warmer zones work hard weeding them out every year because they are invasive there.  Charlene

[mnwildflowers]

Well technically both primrose and asters would be considered wildflowers and not weeds. A weed would be an invasive plant that is not native to your region. I have a wildflower area about 100 yards long by 40 yards wide that I have planted many native species in, but also with not mowing this area I have plants that are native that have been able to grow (like primrose, asters, fleabane, pearly everlasting, black eyed susan, and several varieties of goldenrod to name a few). I LOVE these wildflowers and they are great for native insect and bird species.

[valerian]

Looking out my window I see maxmillian sunflower, coreopsis, euphorbia marginata , pitchers sage and Indian grass. They all came from the pasture or the ditches. When you live out here in the middle of nowhere and the wind blows like crazy every day, you have to adapt! By the way, that nowhere is right in the middle of KS.
I tried to stick to xeric plants, but sometimes you just have to have something that you know will be iffy here. I said a tearful goodbye to a bleeding heart yesterday. RIP

[Gayle]

It's all in what you like.   I have a few "weeds" that I like so I do keep them, even plant them sometimes.  Wild Sage & Pussy Toes are a couple.   I just pull the ones that are growing where I don't want them.  There is also a False Foxglove that grows wild here & I let that be too.

[luvmyb_b]

Aug 18, 2016 10:10:06 GMT -5 valerian said:

Looking out my window I see maxmillian sunflower, coreopsis, euphorbia marginata , pitchers sage and Indian grass. They all came from the pasture or the ditches. When you live out here in the middle of nowhere and the wind blows like crazy every day, you have to adapt! By the way, that nowhere is right in the middle of KS.
I tried to stick to xeric plants, but sometimes you just have to have something that you know will be iffy here. I said a tearful goodbye to a bleeding heart yesterday. RIP

I hear you on sometimes you just have to adapt, Valerian!  I am getting better and better at it all the time.  Old age helps with that for me.  LOL! 

I used to fight the asters growing in amongst my columbine.  I wanted them each to have their own space (next to one another).  It finally occurred to me that the columbine blooms in the spring, while the asters bloom much later.  They can easily occupy the same space with no problem.  I had the same issue with the snapdragons volunteering in my rose garden.  They drove me crazy!!!  I eventually decided that the snaps look nice in the bed when the roses aren't necessarily at their best, so the snapdragons stay where they want to grow.  I'm even looking to get different colors for the bed next year.  Earlier this spring, I noticed that the birds had planted black oil sunflower seeds in my veggie pots.  I pulled quite a few seedlings at first, but then I remembered my new gardening philosophy of waiting to see if they really needed to be pulled.  They didn't.  The sunflowers are adding a lot of color to the pots, and also bring in pollinators for the vegetables.  I also have hollyhocks that came up with my Resurrection lilies.  The colors are really complimentary so I'm leaving them as is. 

There are actually great blessings in going with the flow and letting things bloom where they are planted - even if it wasn't by me!   

[Ladybird]

Town kept mowing off red Robin trilliums that grew on my road so about 10 yrs ago I dug some up and transplanted in a flowerbed. Have white also plus some Star Of Bethlehem I found in the woods.

[Deleted]

So sorry about your knee problems! What not start seding some of your areas with native wildflowers! Its becoming an "in" thing to do nowdays! I just went out today to talk to the lawn mowing co. that our HOA hires to mow and do lawn work to not be cutting back mmy woodsy area outback! They never had done that before. I know there were jack-in-the-pulpits back there, rare wild lady slippers, pretty wild ferns, and its heading toward where the big clumps of daffodils have been for yrs and yrs, and my dogwood, the "wild" forsythia, etc! I also contacted the HOA about it! I am trying to protect my patch of native woods here! :-(
There are lots of ways to seed wildflowers.

[Deleted]

Karen, i have volunteer snap dragons growing quite happiky here, too! I love them! They have contained themsrlves to one spot and are very happy there! I water them along with my other things!

[valerian]

I just came inside and good grief it is hot and to make matters worse I am growing a bumper crop of giant crab grass right in the middle of the hollyhock patch. Ugh and NO!

[grammyoh]

We(4 generations) live in a big house on 12 acres out in the boonies. lots of wild flowers in the fields around us. The people who built the house over planted every area. Lots of things had to be taken out .One area, by the front entrance, had wildflowers that really looked bad. Nothing pretty, I had to remove them and try to dress up the front of the house. I'm 83 yrs old and love to play in the dirt with the flowers, at this age why did I want to create 3 new areas to plant and take care of! I would like to have wildflowers along one side of the yard where there is a field. A lot of flowers would be pretty but the haylike grass is so thick I can't get anything cleared enough to seed or plant. 


I hope your wooded area can be saved those are beautiful plants to be mowed over! I haven't seen a lady slipper for a long time. 


I love the snapdragons and wish more would come back! Someone said bloom where they are planted sounds good to me. I don't do much planting I only want things that return the next yr!