Thursday, December 04, 2008

But Then, I'm Easily Amused...



One of the things that amuses me to no end is the seemingly never-ending appearance of pokeweed in the mystery plant section of various gardening message boards. I only have to read the first few words of a post: "There is this large plant growing in my garden" and I yell POKEWEED! I think there should be a sticky at the top of each plant I.D. board "It's pokeweed".
Posted by Picasa

Comments:
Pokeweed is such a pretty colour after it blooms. My dad used to give us the berries, just a couple to chew on. They're poisonous, aren't they? I think I can add that to my hazardous plant encounters in my childhood. :)
 
Hi Don,
The dreaded pokeweed! We had one growing in our front garden a few years ago and Fernymoss made me leave it alone ... big mistake! It took us 2 years to kill the thing! We finally just drilled into the base, filled it with salt and put a huge pot with an Elephant Ear over it for a year. It finally went away, though now we see it popping up around then neighborhood, thankfully no longer in our garden though!
 
CherB... did you and your dad get along well... yikes!

IVG... they are hulks, indeed.

Don
 
LOL...yeah, yeah, yeah...I actually posted about it, too. But it's a weird and attention-getting weed, and for those of us who have never paid attention to such things, we just don't know what it's called!
 
well, it is an stunning looking weed. Unfortunately some European gardeners thought so too. They brought it here and now it is going "native" here... along with Japanese knotweed and Goldenrod - replacing our native vegetation. :(
 
Genie... I actually quite like it, and (foolishly, I know) let a couple grow in the open woods every year.

No... well, it's only fair; you gave us garlic mustard, which is just totally taking over our woodlands. I spend perhaps a hundred hours a year clearing it from a nature preserve I take care of.

Don
 
Don,
It is indeed a Hulk! When we had it growing here we called it the "Cthulu Weed" after the scary creatures from H.P. Lovecraft's books. It is pretty, but we're glad it's moved on now.
 
Well, I understand that it's a nasty, rotten, no-good, very bad fellow... but it really is attractive, don't you think? (At least "out there" where I've seen it growing!) ;-)
 
IVG & Shady... I shouldn't have let it go to seed around here.
!
Don
 
Well, reasonably well. I think he liked the puckery effect the fruit has. I didn''t care or it so much. ;)
 
CherB... I looked it up, and it turns out the berries are the least toxic part of the plant (I found out so much fascinating stuff that I wrote a new post on it).

Don
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?