Plant identification help, please.

[Dilbertian]

Anyone know what this is?

I think it looks like amaranthus.

Looks like garden/red orach. In the amaranth family.

Thanks. Disappointed, though, because it's lovely and I want it in my garden, but I only plant perennials or self-seeders in my garden, and I can't find a variety that meets those criteria.

You can get the growth habit and lovely leaf colour, though. Try the perennial Lysimachia ciliata "Firecraker" Looks very similar, if you can stand it being adulterated by yellow flowers for a short period each year.

Dilbertian I'm a bit confused, as Amaranth is a perennial and self seeds 😞

@BeautifulWoman

Dilbertian I'm a bit confused, as Amaranth is a perennial and self seeds 😞

Everywhere I looked it was being sold as and described as an annual.

My understanding is that it is not a perennial but does self seed freely.

Maybe I'll give it a try, then

Review on this one mentions self seeding

https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/item1780bborachscarlettemperor_seeds

There's a contradiction between the botanical and gardening use of annual, biennial and perennial.

Botanically an annual completes its cycle in one year, from seed, plant flower, seeds, death. A biennial grows a rosette of leaves, overwinter, flowers next year and dies. A perennial keeps going for several years.

In gardening terms, an annual flowers in the first year from seed and is replanted each year (either because it's not hardy in Britain or because it gets straggly). So runner beans are botanically perennial but treated as annuals here.

A biennial flowers in the second year and is then replaced. Eg wallflowers, which however are botanically perennial.

A biennial flowers in the second year and is then replaced. Eg wallflowers, which however are botanically perennial.

Yes - Foxgloves are generally treated as biennials but will sometimes survive and flower the next year. Perlagoniums (and probably lots of other 'bedding plants' sold as annuals) will go on years if they aren't frosted - there are some splendid big ones which climb trellises in greenhouses or frost free regions.

I'm a very lazy gardener. My plants need to more-or-less look after themselves. I try to plant drought-tolerant plants that do not require careful pruning or propagating. (In other words, I plonk plants in the soil, chuck water at them from time to time if it hasn't rained and hack back a couple of times a year.) Will amaranth fit the bill?

I'm in my first year of growing amaranth so can't advise of ease of self seeding/looking after sorry.

But I have a wallflower currently in its third year which appears to be going strong and just getting bigger and bigger. So this is because they are botanically a short lived (?) perennial but people generally treat them as biennials? Why would you do that? I get treating tender perennials as annuals but why biennials since they will need to go through and winter so presumably need to be hardy?

Because people like nice tidy gardens and would rather rip out slightly straggly plants. (Also there were a lot of assumptions made in the past about how well plants would survive in UK.) See also tidying up the garden in autumn (cutting down all the interesting seedheads that finches love to feed on in winter). If you like the look of it, OP, try it. It will survive or it won't. It will be fun finding out. My gardening style is much like yours

Interesting. Yeah - a tidy garden has always evaded me

Speaking of assumptions, apparently when tomatoes were first introduced they were ornamental, which makes me . Tomatoes are delicious but they're not beautiful plants.

Tomatoes are delicious but they're not beautiful plants. I think they would have been grown for the fruits in the same way as those little "winter cherry" Solanum capsicastrum plants are sold around Christmas.

I seem to remember runner beans were first grown for their flowers.

Yes - and if you'd never seen tomatoes before they'd be a very distinctive large, bright berry. At that time many of the ornamental plants we now have as colourful garden staples hadn't yet been imported to the western world so there was perhaps more space for the tomato. Plus of course, some of the early imports were toxic!

I'm a bit late to this party, but if you're after something with a similar look, try persicaria Red Dragon.