Hi is this a weed

[louise5754]

I've lost track what I've planted. Thanks x

Yes, it’s seeding Rose Bay willow herb. Carefully remove it, the seeds are spread by the wind, so try not to disturb them when pulling it up.

Oh gutted I've got lots of them. Thanks.

Are they sometimes included in the natural meadow / country garden seed packs?

Yup it is. Bee is right. Had the same convo with my pal the other night. It gets bloody everywhere.

If you like it, keep it. There is a saying - a weed is only a plant in the wrong place.
But it is a super spreader....!

I did that with cowslips. I brought some home from my friends farm and now they are appearing everywhere! I like them. But not that much

I don't think it's rose bay willowherb as they have tall solid central stems. But I don't know what it's called I get it all over the place, usually about 1 -2 feet tall. I would def pull it up whilst trying not to release the seeds which fly off, I haven't seen bees on it as it has v small pink flowers.

Are these them?

Yes.

MistressMounthaven is right, it's not rosebay willowherb. It is a willow herb, probably Epilobium montanum, but you can tell it's not rosebay - on the third picture you can see it has tiny pale pink flowers not the dark pink of rosebay. It's the wrong growth habit for rosebay, and the flowers are not in the long spikes of rosebay.

Interesting. I thought they were all the same! If the rain wasn’t currently in I’d be ripping up two I can see out if my window just now...!

Do they spread? What do people think on the look? My sister said it looks like I'm growing weeds. I don't really like it but I wanted a natural meadow feel

Yes, they'll spread - as you can see, they're prolific seeders. Some of the willowherbs are worth letting flower IMO (especially Greater rosebay) but not set seed, but tbh this one isn't worth having.

Errol Do you mean Greater willowherb? Tall thing with soft leaves and beautiful dark pink flowers with showy white stigmas?

I'm not fond of Epilobium montanum, and grub it out wherever I see it. It seeds prolifically, but is a perennial with runners that throw up new plants. Unsurprisingly, it's not rare, so doesn't need to be cherished as a rarity.

Gardener here. It's a weed. Only an annual so will pull out fairly easily. Definitely willow herb family though I never bothered to learn the proper names of the weeds, got enough on my plate with the plants people do want 😜
No need to panic about it, as it's easy enough to remove and any left will die back over winter. Rosebay willow herb on the other hand is about 4ft tall, bright pink and has brittle roots that spread underground and grow a new plant every time they break. It's a night mare ! Poison is the only real way forward for that one unfortunately

I’ve got rosebay willow-herbs in my garden and think they are very pretty. My garden is big enough to allow for some of these weeds though without them taking up space for other plants. They mix nicely with the nettles in my wildlife patch.

Definitely a weed, and a prolific one at that. There is an app you can get for your phone that lets you take a picture of any plant, and it will tell you what it is and whether it’s a weed, found it really helpful moving to a new house where I didn’t know what to expect in the spring, and checked the plants as they sprouted to see what should stay and what to go. Just search for plant ID on the App Store.

I’ve got rosebay willow-herbs in my garden and think they are very pretty There are garden-bred varieties with different coloure flowers, eg peach.

There is an app you can get for your phone that lets you take a picture of any plant, and it will tell you what it is and whether it’s a weed, It will tell you that the picture of your plant has a similar pattern of colours as a picture of another plant which may or may not be the same. It merely speeds up the process of flicking though a lot of pictures on google and its results should be treated in the same way. It doesn't have any botanical knowledge so can't tell you when it's got it astoundingly wrong.

"Weed" is not a category of plant; whether a plant is a weed depends on where it is growing and what the gardener's intentions are. I grub out every single seedling of Alchemilla mollis, which is sold at £5.99 a pot in the garden centres. To me it is a weed.