Considering that some people have this stuff self seeding all over the place, that probably seems like a strange request, but I have two plants I love, but they never self sow. I've looked in catalogs for comfrey seed, but I can never find any. Is there something I don't know about comfrey? Does anyone have any seed?
You don't need seed.Just dig them up and divide them.Everywhere theres a peice of root you'll get a new plant.Very invasive.I've been trying to get it out of my mother-in-laws garden for years.As long as a peice of root is still there I get new plants.
That's my point, Crestedchik, mine don't seem to spread or throw seed. I'd like to have more so that I can harvest them as a herbal, but they've been there two years and don't look much different than when I first got them from a friend. Do they put out seed?
Yes, they do set seed but I agree the easiest way is to divide them. We have a difficult soil and very few things self sow here, we have several types of comfrey here and none have never produced self sown seedlings either. What you might find is that it is having a little trouble to establish itself but once it does it will be well away. (I'm a walking advert) Chiltern Seeds list the seeds of Symphytum officinale if you can't find someone with some seeds or plants here. I've not collected the seeds of ours so far so I don't know if they would be viable or not.
Thanks, Baa. I know it seems foolish to start these plants from seed, but I hate to keep bugging people for plants. I never see them listed in the seed catalogs, so I'll try the one you suggested, if it's online.
Are there many varieties? The two I have are probably at least 5 ft. tall with small pink blooms, with rather a deep tinge of color inside. Maybe I should ask the lady who gave them to me, as to where she got them. Perhaps they don't put out seed!
I feel like a real clutz not being able to propagate something that everybody else is beating out of their yard with hoe handles!
I'm tellin ya,dig those puppys up,rip them out,(it won't be easy),everywhere there is a root left in the ground a new plant will sprout.Replant the ones you have ,snip some off the roots,plant them too......
Crestedchick is right it will root from little pieces, it depends on how the well formed the root structure is, but they can go deeper than 10ft on old stands.
The plant pictured looks to me like the bog standard Symphytum officinale which comes in a few colours from white to darkish pink. There are round 30+ species of Symphytum which range from pale yellow, white, pink to deep blue in flower colour and degree of invasiveness. Not all have medicinal properties though. The plantdatabase has a 3 species listed so far.
Thanks, guys. I'll take a look at my two plants and see if they've grown over the last year. Maybe I can dig them up and get some starts. I'll check out the data base...thanks.
I planted a comfrey plant right smack in the front of my herb bed about 7 or 8 years ago. The plant doesn't spread outwards ... it just remains in a clump. I've tried to dig it out a zillion times and it still comes back. I even hit a couple of times with weed killer and the darn thing still lives. Weez - dig one up, chop up the roots and replant them. They will grow! We had a discussion on here a while back about how great the leaves are to use in a compost tea. It's supposed to be wonderful.
Hey Weezin, if you need more starts, please E me. :)
Michele
Ok, you guys, I have to confess. I'm a real softy about the big green guys. I hate to dig up plants and chop off their little heads...even when I know it is the right thing to do. When I start plants indoors, every little seedling gets a chance...no thinning for me, just hours of careful transplanting! Does anyone offer a tough love class for soft hearted plant lovers??
In spite of all that, it sounds like these guys have an incredible root system, and should only be planted where they will be welcome in the future. That's good to know. I had the impression they were invasive because they self-seed, and that certainly hasn't been the case for me.
Maybe I can get tough next spring, take a couple pulls off a corn whiskey jug, and go out and decapitate something. If I don't dig up my bleeding heart, we're going to have to move the house. I'm a soft hearted gardener, but I can change, if I have to.....I guess.
LOL - it's called gardening radically! Chop-chop - Snip Snip! Don't worry about that bleeding heart either. I divided mine every spring for about 4 years in a row for a plant sale. Didn't even slow it down. Plant the pieces of broken roots too cuz some of them will take off and make a new plant. I've even divided new plants I've bought because I was too cheap to buy more than one. I'll pick out the biggest pot and chop it into 3 or 4 pieces when I got it home. My idea of frugal ;o)
You know, Poppysue: I'm beginning to think that some plants don't respect you if you don't do something invasive to them every once in awhile. All my flowers have beautiful loam, well...most do!..and I feed them good compost, and I weed them, and I talk to them..and they do OK.
One of my garden friends lives about three miles from here, and she gardens in gravel...very small gravel, but gravel. She throws seeds out her door and gives them a little Miracle Grow if they decide to live. She digs things up and throws them in a wheelbarrow. They grow in the wheelbarrow, throw seeds and grow around it. All her plants have little volunteers growing out of the gravel around them.
It isn't fair...but, it's my fault, my plants just don't respect me. I've got to think "Tough Love".
i agree with poppysue i dig mine up every spring so i have plants to sell. can never seem to get seeds from the darn things. so all i do is dig about a foot out just as they come up and sift out every piece i can find. chop off the growing part about 3 inches out put it back in and cut up the rest in 2 inch peices and put them into 4 inch pot and water them good. and i a few weeks i have plants to sell.
troy: thanks for the detailed info. I needed that, since I'm never quite sure how to go about these things. I've had the same horseradish in the ground for 4 years...just hate to disturb it! Tough love, I need to try tough love on these green children!
Was just getting more seeds ready to sow and found two types of Comfrey seeds I havested from my two types. Unknown comfrey from Buddy & Sue and Russian comfrey. I'll sow a six pack of each and let you have the rest. Eads
Hey, Ceeads: You're a real sport!
Hey, Weez! I got some comfrey a couple years ago and it never amounted to much ~ just sat there, looking pathetic, throwing up three or four leaves (that looked like they'd been "thrown up"). Don't know what color the blooms are as it's never bloomed for me. This year I transplanted it and it looks great now! I just can't believe the difference! I'll bet it'll bloom this year. I tried to mother it before, now I just ignore it ~ apparently it doesn't like that much attention. Everyone's right in that it stays put, not really spreading much, until you dig it up. Then there'll be plants coming up from root pieces where it was.
Anybody know if there are some kinds that just don't do that? Maybe that's your trouble, Weez? I have no idea. If it is and you want some of the easily-propagated kind, I'd be happy to send you some of mine. Here are pics in my journal (at the bottom around April 10th): http://davesgarden.com/journal/viewentry/13708/index.html Next to it (in the last pic), you can see the little ones I transplanted from the original spot.
Yes, Wingnut. I think there are different kinds... I guess I should research the subject... in my spare time! If you get some seeds, I'd sure appreciate some. My comfrey get about five feet tall and have little purplish pink bell-like flowers that hang down. I really like the plant, and the leaves have medicinal properties, as well. Everybody keeps telling me to dig them up and generally treat them bad, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to drink a glass of gin with a human hair in it to get mean enough to do that.. and I hate gin!
Weez, Sammy saw your post and said "She's outa' her gourd!" I hate gin, too. I keep my comfrey in bondage, it screams for more!
Hi, Ceeads: So, Sammy just noticed my gourd, eh? Where is your comfrey growing? I don't remember seeing it.
Weezin...in the cinderblock bed next to the woodshed.
Comfrey or Beinwell is not only a medicinal plant in Germany, but also pigs food. Ours has blue flowers and being visited by bumble bees in large numbers. The german name Beinwell means, that is does well to legs. The leaves were used on so called 'Open legs', a problem of older people.
Monika: Thanks so much for the info. What is the condition "open legs". Does it refer to swelling, or is it something else? The flower colors vary over here, but tend to be white with a lavender or pink tinge.
Does anyone have more of these seeds to share?
Well, uh, I might. I grew over 100 comfrey plants last year from seed. Comfrey does go to seed, of course, and growing it from seed is no different from growing Good King Henry or mercury (bonus henricum) from seed ie. difficult but worthwhile.
Meanwhile, I can ship you some comfrey root segments (doubtless in violation of the phytosanitation rules).
Do you perchance have any rare or heirloom bean seeds we might swap?
Yours, dibbering
JOHN YEOMAN
