Also known as weeds

I guess a lot of people have been wildflower spotting closer to home this spring. The trouble with garden wild flowers is they might also be considered weeds. A weed can be a cultivated plant or a native plant in the wrong place and I have both! What is a native plant? Is it reasonable to consider a plant that came over with the Romans, such as ground elder, a native by now? I have plenty of that!

Flowering this week in my garden

I have a warm South facing garden in Seaford, Sussex, about a mile from the sea.

Shepherds purse – Capsella bursa-pastoris

This one came in on a delivery of garden plants in pots.

Ivy-leaved Speedwell – Veronica hederifolia

This tiny plant is pretty much being shaded out by garden plants or weeded away by the end of May.

Spotted medick – Medicago arabica

Seen in my front garden with what I assume is a grasshopper amongst a vigorous mess of ivy and soapwort.

More weeds

The main weed in my lawn can’t really be described as a wildflower as it’s a cultivated geranium that self-seeds profusely, and I haven’t the heart to remove it. I’m lucky enough to have forget-me-nots self-seeding in profusion every year and flowering in May but can’t remember ever planting any.

Lawn geranium – Seaford – May 2020

Other borderline wildflowers in my garden later in the year include perennial pea (which apparently originates from the Mediterranean) and soapwort (once popular with washerwomen). Then there’s borage, wheat from the bird feeder, and chamomile from work. I also have woolly mullein which blew in from somewhere and self-seeds in the border every year to make 2m high yellow spires, and I garden around them – this year I tried inter-planting with purple veronicastrum and am excited to see how the combination turns out!

Read more about identifying speedwells

Read about wildflowers in my Sussex garden in June