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Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 05 9:29 pm Post subject:
and the flowers, for some reason they are clear on my PC but a bit blurry when i post

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 05 9:32 pm Post subject:
Yep, that matches up to the pic in the link. There are many more pics of it on that site.

nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 05 10:56 pm Post subject:
It looks like that bloody awful weed with monstrous tap roots that seeds itself everywhere and is impossible to shift from your garden! I've been trying to get rid of it for 3 years to no avail

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 05 7:55 am Post subject:
Alkanet. No doubt. It's a dyers plant, a non native introduced for the pigment alledgedly in the roots. I've had no success extracting the dye, though.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 05 8:01 am Post subject:

nettie wrote:

It looks like that bloody awful weed with monstrous tap roots that seeds itself everywhere and is impossible to shift from your garden! I've been trying to get rid of it for 3 years to no avail

I quite like it

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 05 8:41 am Post subject:
That's the good thing about gardening on a thing chalky soil. Not many plants take hold and go mad. It's taken a few years to get a small patch of nettles growing for example.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 05 9:24 am Post subject:
Flaming awful stuff. I'm constantly weeding out alkanet. It means that I can't let borage self seed in the garden because the seedlings are rather too similar

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 05 10:29 pm Post subject:
When I told my other half it was probably alkanet not borage and i would just try and get rid of it all she said " oh but the flowers are really pretty" so you are not alone bugs and it looks like it will be staying in a bit of the garden at least.

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 05 8:18 am Post subject:

Bugs wrote:

Treacodactyl tells me it's definitely not borage so please don't eat it.

darnit

we have loads of that in our communal gardens, i was getting all excited thinking how lovely it would taste... oh well

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 05 2:14 pm Post subject:
Yep, definitely evergreen alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens), so DON'T EAT ANY PART OF IT! It can be confused with alkanet (Anchusa officinalis) which is a dye plant and the young leaves and flowers of which are edible. As far as I can track down, the one you have is pretty well useless, although I agree, it's very pretty. Sorry!

cede

Joined: 25 Mar 2005
Posts: 62
Location: surrey

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 05 7:02 pm Post subject:
it hurts your hands if you try and pull it and as has already been mentionned it has a long root, personally i don't like it but then i have been battling against it for as long as we have lived here -about 8 years!

nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 05 1:20 am Post subject:
yep please don't let it grow -it will seed everywhere and be a right royal pain in the ass to remove

Guest

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 05 11:00 pm Post subject:
Alkanet, if kept in check, should be grown in every garden. Like all blue-flowered plants, it attracts bees (think of blue borage), and should be grown if only for that reason. It says in one of my books that the leaves can be eaten in salads. Sarah D

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 05 11:10 pm Post subject:

Quote:

Alkanet, if kept in check, should be grown in every garden.

But why Alkanet *instead of* Borage?
Is it that it is simply earlier, or am I missing something?
Previous posts suggest that Alkanet is not something one would deliberately put in one's Pimms, and there's obvious room for confusion...

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Mon Apr 11, 05 5:58 am Post subject:
I've actively planted the evergreen alkanet in my gardens for the flowers. Yes it is an earlier flowerer, starts in March for me, and flowers for most of the year. It do grow it in the 'wild' part of my garden with foxgloves etc. As for confusing it with borage once you've seen them both it's very easy to tell the difference.

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