Well my dalliance with the milk thistle is over. Earlier this year it appeared in the side garden and I was taken enough by the foliage to leave it grow for a while. But every time I cut it back to clear the pathway beside it, it would grow right back out over it in no time. So today I cut it down and dug it out, quite easy actually. What do you think, anyone else find the foliage attractive? The flower was just an ordinary purple thistle flower.
The first photo was taken March 14, the second about two weeks later. The last three were taken today, before and after digging it out. It sure did grow fast.
Edited to fix the popular name: not milkweed thistle, just milk thistle. The botanical name is Silybum marianum.
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If you let it flower it self seeds everywhere and you are never rid of it. I gave a plant to a friend, and a year later I asked her if she would like another one, (its biennial). "No certainly not!" She said. "My husband fell over and landed in it, and I had to help him bath for a week."
Looks like you have a beautiful garden, even without it.
Fernapple
Level 9
May 12, 2020
1
Thanks. It did cover over or bend over everything around it, so not a team player.
I did brush against it moving around in shorts and sandals, and I mean the slightest contact. Definitely not a kind plant. Fortunately it was quite easy to cut down and dig up. And I did so the day the first flower opened.
Pretty leaves. Try it in pots to contain it. I think it looks great and adds to the visual.
FrayedBear
Level 9
May 11, 2020
2
Geez it got so wide so fast I can't imagine a pot big enough to safely hold it.
@MarkWD Act differently in a pot.
Flowers are just weeds we have decided belong, then we keep trying to make them prettier,
glennlab
Level 10
May 11, 2020
6
I'll tell you, I was reluctant to toss her out but she was such an abrasive thing that I had no choice. But to heck with her flowers, it was the foliage that won my affection.
They are a pretty plant but the damn stickers..lol
HerbertNewsam
Level 6
May 11, 2020
5
Isn't that the truth and having cut it back off the little stepping stone pathway more than once only to have it return, I was tired of feeling her pointy ends.
@MarkWD i had a big one next to my uncleaned compost, while cleaning it all up there were 6 little babies coming under its fronds, lol I, my hoe weres my hoe here hoe here hoe...it doesnt come well when called...probably a training issue...lol
@HerbertNewsam you are not paying her enough to obey you perhaps?
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