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pixie_lou

Is this a weed?

pixie_lou
13 years ago

I got home from vacation, and noticed this growing in one of my patio pots. I'm guessing it is a weed? But a kinda pretty one? Anyone know what it is?

I don't know how to make the picture show up in the forum, but here is a link to my flickr account.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38102819@N02/4868310429/

Comments (12)

  • sooey
    13 years ago

    Hi pixie,

    Gosh, that's nice, what ever it is. I have no idea, but it's not bad. Good luck.

    sooey

  • tree_oracle
    13 years ago

    Pokeweed? I don't recall Pokeweed having that amount of purple veining in the leaves but other than that it looks very similar. It's common for that particular weed to pop up in containers.

  • pixie_lou
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Maybe it is pokeweed. There is a ton of it down in the cul de sac of our neighborhood. When I googled pokeweed, a description does say that you can get purple or red veining.

    I'm going to leave it alone for a while and see what happens. I'll call it a gardening experiment!

  • Richard Dollard
    13 years ago

    I get that in my yard during the hot summer and I call it a weed!

  • mskee
    13 years ago

    I love "gardening experiments!" Years ago, before I recognized young plants, I would weed all the plants that emerged from the bricks next to my driveway. One, year, for some reason or another, I neglected that task, and discovered that sometimes it pays to be lazy. I now have a "garden" full of Black Eyed Susans, Butterfly Weed, and now some errant Calendula plants that seed themselves there! No maintenance required, except to hack it all down in the fall!

    Emily
    Western MA

  • pixie_lou
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Speaking of gardening experiments - I read somewhere that you should plant radishes in amongst your squash plants - and just leave them alone, don't pull them - and they are supposed to deter bugs or something. So I planted a bunch of radishes amongst the squashes this year. It turns out my yellow crook neck squsah plant is a bit wimpy this year - not growing that much. But the radishes are doing great. They flowered about a month ago. And now they are sprouting seed pods. Since I'm not getting squash, at least I'm enjoying watching the life cycle of a radish plant!

  • kathyannd
    13 years ago

    I don't recall pokeweed having that much purple veining either. Looks more like Joy Weed to me. Check on Alternanthera dentata 'Purple Knight' for comparison.

    BUT, it also is very similar to a red veined variety of cockleburr that we have growing as a weed around here (coastal MA) - you'll know when it flowers! If it's a cockleburr, they're pretty until the burrs develop. Then, if you have dogs, they're a nightmare!

  • diggingthedirt
    13 years ago

    Nice! Doesn't look like any weeds I've seen around here.

    Here is a link that might be useful: the photo

  • diggingthedirt
    13 years ago

    I don't think it's pokeweed, btw. In the section of my yard where pokeweed is a problem, the leaves of the young plants have a different shape, are more likely to be on a fairly long petiole (leaf stem).

  • cat_delgado
    13 years ago

    I can't say 100% without looking at the stem but it looks like pokeweed to me, if you notice it growing "berries" on top in a few weeks, KILL IT with roundup, pokeweed is notoriously hard to get rid of and pulling the roots never does it, if even a little piece of root is left alive it turns into another plant. Very hard stuff to kill, watch it closely and if it starts to choke your other plant out, just repot it ( I personally would just quarintine it now , just in case....)

  • pixie_lou
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I have buds. It's celosia!

    I vaguely remember having celosia in a few pots a few years back. Apparently a seed has been sitting dormant in the planter. And when I brought the planter out this year with the intention to plant something in it, and then never got around to it, this little seed decided to take root and bloom away.

  • diggingthedirt
    13 years ago

    Hooray! And thanks for the update. I love volunteers (when they're not pokeweed, at least).