Friend or Foe?

[MerlinsBeard]

I am thinking this a weed because there is just so MUCH of it!!

Its a tall "plant" with lots of bright yellow flowers on one stem...LOTS of it has sprung up without me noticing. Have mowed a lot of it away from the edge of the garden, DH won't let me hack anymore until we know one way or the other what it is!

ow can you tell a weed from a flower easily anyway?!

Tricky - can you post a picture? How tall is it? What type of leaves does it have?

You could go for the "weed is any plant in the wrong place" approach, but that could wind up with you having a complete thug take over before you know it - and it is a bit concerning if it's all come from nowhere.

Make sure it doesn't go to seed before you've worked out what it is...

Meant to say the plant that springs to mind is evening primrose, which can get carried away but is fairly easy to keep in check if you want to.

why did i not think of doing a pic?!

One is currently sending from my phone to twitpic - will link when it's uploaded to there!

this should be it - sorry its not a good picture

Hmmm. Well I'm pretty sure that's not evening primrose.

Have you tried taking a bit to your local garden centre (leaves and flowers)?

I'll keep pondering...

It's Lysimachia punctata, which according to my RHS encyclopedia 'may be invasive'. It prefers damp grassland, woodland or by water. It's not a weed as such, but you will need to dig up the areas where you don't want it as it will spread by underground rhizomes. I think it looks quite pretty, provided you've got enough space to have it without smothering other plants.

Thank you

SO not a weed but a garden invader!!

Will tidy it up a bit so it looks less weedlike - saves me a LOT of work!