Plants > Plant ID questions

Unknown plant at Ightham Mote

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Eric Hardy:
In "Gardens to visit in the UK" I posted this plant taken on a visit in 2003 to Ightham Mote, in Kent. I asked whether anyone could identify it but nobody did. Perhaps this is a more appropriate place for my question.

Trevor Ellis:
Hi Eric,

the plant looks rather like Phacelia Tanacetifolium.

Hope this helps,

Trevor

Eric Hardy:
Thanks, Trevor. I have been checking images on the internet and I am sure you are right. I had consulted the bible (The R.H.S. A-Z) but there is no illustration. Now you have given me the name I find that there is an entry but (I don't know about you) I can never find anything just looking at descriptions without a picture.

Trevor Ellis:
I know what you mean Eric and it often comes down to a bit of luck, often intuition fed etc. And often things look quite different even in photographs in books. We all know how conditions sometimes can make a difference to how a plant looks, it's size, even colour and so on. I had two plants of Phacelia appear in quite different parts of my present garden. One was quite strong and the other very small and weak. The strong one was destroyed in a cat fight one night last year and the other limped on until the autumn. Non have appeared so far this year but things do seem to be about three weeks to a month late so here's hoping. It's one of the very pretty annual plants from the Borage family that is I think classed either as weeds (sometimes called Scorpion weed apparently) or as fodder. I hadn't been aware of it till it appeared self set in the garden. It's supposed to be very attractive to hoverflies so there's a second good reason to grow it in addition to it's undoubted attractiveness.

Cheers,
Trevor

JohnB:
Looks like Trevor hit the nail on the head, an internet search comes up with a couple of sites that have photos and there appears to be a match. It's amazing how 'weeds' can look so nice sometimes!

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