What is a weed?

Bindweed can be a menace in the garden. I'm sure the underground shoots grow unseen in the winter, and it can get everywhere. It's Latin name is Calystegia sepium.

I don't like bindweed (I don't know if that's the correct name). Even though the white flowers are pretty, it chokes everything else and is very difficult to get rid of.

Chamerion angustifolium is the plant commonly known as fireweed (mainly in North America), great willow-herb (some parts of Canada),[1] or rosebay willowherb (mainly in Britain), is a perennial herbaceous plant which flourished on bombsites, areas that have been burned or with a high potash content.

There is no such thing botanically as a weed. Lots of plants grow quickly and freely, especially annuals.

A weed is simply a plant that's growing where you don't want it to grow. We humans, tend not to encourage plants with small insignificant flowers, those that spread profusely or are toxic.

My old next door neighbour considers foxgloves as weeds. I cultivate them.

Some over zealous plants like Japanese Knotweed or Indian Balsam and some toxic ones, such as Ragwort as mentioned by Absent are called 'notifiable weeds*.

So Ana's poem is spot on.

Some plants are definitely not good to have around. Here, ragwort is a legally controlled weed as, if cattle eat it, it kills them and dairy farming is a massive part of the economy. It also grows fast like...a weed.

My garden. which was hugely overgrown when we moved in, is riddled with ivy which chokes everything else to death and what I think Americans call nutweed (I'm not sure of the UK nomenclature) which also grows voraciously. I have been waging a major battle against both for the past year and I think I may be winning.

One of its names is fireweed. It is very pretty, but very persistent, and the fluffy seeds fly everywhere and spread it.

I've heard that too dustyangel it thrived on bomb site after the war.

I know that gardeners don`t think so, but I think that a lawn looks it`s prettiest when dotted with daisies, and if all the daisies are killed off, how are little girls going to make their daisy chains?

Glad to help your GD keep her illusions Agus. I like it too
I seem to remember being told that it (RW) thrives on land where there has been a fire. Don't know if that is true.

The only weeds I really don't like are dandelions. They spread like wildfire and are all over the garden and patio this year. Hard to get rid of as well!

I have scarlet pimpernel, bags, and speedwell. How else are we to teach our grandchildren about wild flowers if the gardeners think they are all weeds in a lawn? This year I have very little lawn left. It's nearly all clover.

Got it thanks Ana

Rosebay Willowherb it is dusty. my mind went completely blank when she asked me. Thanks for letting me know. GD is under the impression that Granny knows everything and I hate to disillusion her . I will let her know when I see her tomorrow.

I have cosmos in the garden so know it's not a weed Gknot.

Cranesbill? Common mallow?

agus is it cosmos? They are definitely not weeds

Rosebay Willowherb ?

A very timely thread

GD was asking me the name of the tall pink flower that grows in abundance at the side of the road. I can't remember but I'm sure GNetters can help me out please. No doubt it will be termed a weed but GD and I like it.

The best thing to keep bracken under control is cattle tampling it, apparently.

Loving the posts!

durhamj, my mum had scarlet pimpernel growing at the side of her lawn that the gardener who mows and weeds for her wanted to pull up. He called it a weed. She said firmly: "It's a pretty wild flower. Leave it."

Bob Flowerdew says you can kill almost anything by cutting or mowing it down to ground level repeatedly, so the answer to your question rubysong is 'yes'. The bracken should eventually die off.

I like ferns, primroses and bluebells in certain areas of the garden and have just planted a fernery of fancy ferns (and our natural ones) but they all reproduce like mad and it's difficult to get other things going where they are thick on the ground. I'm also trying to get rid of bracken in the churchyard but don't want to use spray. We've strimmed it and I am going to pull the regrowth every few weeks. Will it give up eventually?

I might grow a weed garden.
I wouldn't have to lift a finger!
Ah, but they wouldn't be weeds if I wanted them there, would they?

I purposefully have ferns, primroses and bluebells in my garden. Love them. As my biggest fern unfolds the DGC call it the seahorse plant, the ends of the fronds look just like a tiny seahorse.

A weed is a plant that slugs and snails don't want to eat.

That did make me chuckle - because it's so true

I do sometimes feel a bit guilty as I pull up buckets and buckets of ferns, primroses and bluebells, only to switch on Gardeners World and find them planting the damned things delightful plants. They all grow everywhere in my garden and I have to keep them to manageable levels or they would swamp everything else.