The long-awaited........weed

We had the prettiest weed growing in our brug terrace. Unusually shaped dark green shiny leaves. So we decided to let it grow so we could find out what it was. It grew, and grew and grew and spread and spread and spread. Finally it put up an arching flowerhead with tiny little greenish-yellow flowers; kinda dissappointing. But we were able to look it up and discovered it was an unusually large ragweed.

Aaaaaah-choo!

That's funny Betty! God Bless you :)

lol gardenwife. My spousal unit cut it down yesterday before it reseeded.

Don't forget to burn it! Those seeds are born viable!

~* Robin

It had just barely started to open so I think we killed it before any seeds had time to form .

Sounds like giant ragweed. Do burn it or send it to the local land fill. The seeds are viable for up to 20 years.

LOL!!!! Betty !

20yrs omg thats horrible! no wonder i cant win this battle!

Oh NO, I did the same thing. I had thrown a bunch of seeds down, then forgot what I threw. When something sprouted, I nurtured it along wondering what in the world it was, it didn't look familiar at all.

It grew to 6' - at least - and bloomed....then I finally got suspicious and looked it up. It was a ragweed, too.

I yanked that bad boy out - hope I caught it before it seeded!

What a great thread - reminds me of the time I sowed a Park's Seed packet of mixed wildflowers in a coldframe one spring. Only one kind of plant appeared - lots. I carefully nurtured my little babies and planted them out, enjoying the mystery. They had a stately architectural presence I admired. The following year, they turned out to be teasel.

They brought drama to the garden in more ways than one - one morning, I followed my ears to a persistent clackety-clack sound. Teasel leaves make a "cup" at the stem that collects rain water, and on the edge was a praying mantiss that had gotten hold of a big bumble bee and was beating the leaf with the bee.

It became hard to keep up with the teasel volunteer seedlings, so eventually I eradicated it from the garden. Encroaching shade helped that process along.

Now, where did all those praying mantisses go?

blue, you should have run and gotten your camera!