Weed or flower?

[FatherBrownsBicycle]

I pull it up every year but it keeps coming back. I assumed, despite it being delicate and pretty, that it was a weed. If it’s actually a flower I will leave it in future.

Well a weed is only a weed if you don't like it and it's grown where you don't want it. If you like it, leave it.

I think it's birds foot trefoil, and technically a wildflower, though some people think it's a weed when it appears unwanted in their lawns. I leave it in my lawn because it doesn't appear to damage it or take over, it just looks exquisite.

I generally agree with the weed being a plant in the wrong place until I get to invasive impossible to get rid of ones like bindweed, creeping cinquefoil, horsetail and the like. I think that if you leave it and it takes over crowding everything else out then it's definitely a weed!

Yes a weed is only a flower growing in the wrong place.

I left all my forget me nots as they were a childhood favourite but they are a weed (to some).

I didn’t know what this was and have left it for a few weeks because the flowers were pretty but it has crept along the border a fair bit. I will let it grow again next year but will keep it under better control. Thanks

I take a fairly tolerant attitude to most wildflowers, but it does lead to a scruffy looking garden, and I sometimes have to pull out tons of rampant growth if it threatens to smother everything else. Better for wildlife though. I love forget me nots and Welsh poppies too, they pop up everywhere. I hope your uninvited guest behaves itself, it's a pretty little thing.

Yes, Bearded Dragon is right, birds-foot trefoil (trefoil leaves and a seed head that looks like a bird's foot). Native wildflower. I've seen information boards at nature reserves highlighting the presence of BFT.

I take a fairly tolerant attitude to most wildflowers, but it does lead to a scruffy looking garden I don't think that's the wild flowers so much as how we manage them - we tend to prune "garden" flowers to within an inch of their life and leave wildflowers to do their own thing. But some of our garden flowers are UK wild flowers (lily of the valley for example) and many of our garden flowers are someone else's wild flower.

I grow this in my garden, the bees go crazy for it. I also grow it in my polytunnel near a pond and the scent from the flowers is beautiful.

I left it, thinking the bees would appreciate it, but they never go near it! It did look a little scruffy, even though I’ve got rambling roses climbing through the hedge behind it & I’ve got a fairly relaxed looking garden overall.

I did not know that about lily of the valley, it’s my grandmothers favourite flower. We had some me in our last garden and I’ve been meaning to get some planted here, you have reminded me to add it to my list of things to plant.

Meredint, you may be on to something there. Although I suspect my garden is always going to be slightly scruffy looking because I like it that way totally lazy
OP if you don't mind a slightly wild garden, I have oregano and marjoram running rampant through my borders, and the bees love it. Added bonus, I didn't cut it down after flowering one year, and was rewarded with families of goldfinches alighting on them for the seeds. Keep it contained if you don't want it springing up everywhere. Bumblebees also go nuts for drumstick allium (spherocephalon I think?)

Although I suspect my garden is always going to be slightly scruffy looking because I like it that way Me too. I like it to look as if everything in it just grew naturally. And I love being able to walk round and see new things, that I didn't know were there. It takes half an hour to walk round the garden properly, and it's not big - too small to be measured sensibly in fractions of an acre.

I've never heard anyone describe forget-me-nots as a weed before - my garden is a sea of blue when they're out!

I am a fan of weeds. There are some really pretty ones which live quite happily in my garden. The only time I pull a weed is if it starts to choke other plants, or if it is a dandelion :)

my garden is a sea of blue when they're out! yeah, and a sea of decaying foliage when they're over! - which is why they always come out. There's always enough seed to make sure they come up again next year.

I never pull a plant until I know what it is. Which is difficult now I've found out that there are >100 species of dandelion, which take an estimated 5 years of study to be able to identify them all.. I'm contenting myself with recognising which section they're in - so far mine are all Sections Hamata or Ruderalia.

This has now grown, presumably from a seed from the bird feeder, I’ve downloaded an app that thinks it’s mustard. It’s lovely and bright so I’m leaving it to see what happens.

I had no clue there were so many types of dandelion!

That looks like oil seed rape. A farm crop, but loads have escaped via wind and birds. It’s very pretty along the roadside verges.
I’m another fan of leaving self seeded plants where they are. I’ve Valerian growing all along my drive, and the once smart slate chips front is covered in self seeded viola plants, so pretty.
I describe it a shabbily y chic, rather than scruffy!

The rape flowers don't look so different from wallflowers...I wouldn't let it seed though. I've got a bit of a battle in my back border with too much of a good thing with red campion and herb Robert - lovely things but too successful in a garden! OTOH, I'm leaving self-invited fringecups to do their thing in a dark corner where there wasn't anything else anyway.

The rape flowers don't look so different from wallflowers - well, they're all in the brassica family . Families reflect the descent from common ancestors, so, since the flower is where all the sex happens, it's not surprising that the family is recognised largely by flower character. It can be really difficult to tell what species you have when someone shows you a picture of just the flower - the flower gets you to the family, but often you need leaves and other characters to work out which species.

Errol fringecups are something which have really been making their way out of gardens into the wild over the last 10 years or so. But they're not a thuggish plant (hence they've adapted to shade to avoid conditions) so aren't causing the problems of Rhododendron ponticum for example.

Well that app clearly isn’t very good. Rapeseed wasn’t even listed as a possibility. The bird feeder has given me a couple of sunflowers that have done better than the ones I planted from seed last year.

I just had to google Fringe cups. I have loads of heuchera plants & see they are the same family.

The things I thought were wallflowers in my garden are seemingly something else!

I have a similar thing going on with raspberries. The ones I planted are useless, but there are stonking ones popping up all over the garden. Yum! But my garden is scruffier than usual because I'm stuck indoors with a broken ankle. Who knows what's happening out there...

I find plant id apps terrible in general

I find plant id apps terrible in general Yep! They're basically automating what you do when you flick through google images to try to spot the plant you're looking at, but without the intelligence to say "wait a minute! - my plant is a shrub, it can't be a Sedum"