My favorite weed is the wild perriwinkle (vinca). I tried the hybred but it didn't do good.

Also the spiderwort that MsMarion just gave me.

Marcia, I see yours in full sun, will it take shade?

Are you kidding? My favorite weeds are those that die from RoundUp.

On the other hand, my favorite weed? Hmmm...

Marcia, I have long been an admirer of spiderwort. They certainly are beautiful growing in roadside ditches! My experience with them in my yard, however, is that they multiply and divide like rabbits and are as difficult to eradicate as Mexican petunias once they do. So, I enjoy them as I drive hither, thither and yon, but I keep them out of my yard.

I'd have to say that my favorite weed is Pokeweed, if it's in the "right" place, of course. I currently have 3 stands of it flush with beautiful springtime sprout. Of course, they'll occasionally sprout where you don't want them, but unwanted sprouts are easily pulled when young. Carefully cultivated, Pokeweed is a "weed" worth having in my yard. Birds love the berries, and when the stands of Pokeweed are looking really old, ugly and spent, I just cut them back and wait for springtime again.

Thanks for the topic! It'll be interesting to hear about others' favorite "weeds"!

I didn't know that spiderwort was a weed. I have seen it in white and pink also. I grow the blue myself and like the plant. ;o) Evelyn's bed of oxalis is lovely, but I wouldn't grow that myself, but I do have the purple leaf one.

wow I don't have spikewort,
Guess mine is milkweed.
I think my lawn is going to become all mikweed since the little chartreus seedlings are all through it.
{{gwi:831609}}

I like porterweed and Cuban buttercup too. They pop up everywhere and add an easy splash of color here and there.
Some wild portulacas enjoy the summer, so I let them grow too.
Now these salvias I introduced are popping up everywhere! Are they considered a weed?
Gaillardia I can envision becoming a "weed", but I'm still encouraging them to establish.

i bought a single dune sunflower from a plant sale in deland three years ago... i have no fewer than a thousand seedlings growing in various parts of my yard. i have no idea how it gets where it gets -- in pots, in the shade, in the swale. pretty plant, and i've given scores of them as gifts.

marcia -- i planted a bunch of hybridized spiderworts this year. they come, as katkin remarks, in reds, pinks and whites. i like spiderwort, and it's one tough plant. ever try to pull one out?

Two of my favorite weeds are white flowered oxalis and wild violets, both of which are happily growing in my yard.

Like wildworldwoman, I think spiderwort is lovely growing in roadside ditches but wish I could get it out of my lawn! Although I love my little Florida scrub roseling spiderwort, Callisia ornata. It's not extremely prolific like the ohio spiderwort, Tradescantia ohiensis.

Interesting responses so far. You see, it's true...it's only a weed if you don't WANT it. I've grown spiderwort at every house I've ever lived in, and it has never spread overmuch for me. At least, not to the extent that I didn't want it any more. But then, I don't care WHAT pops up in the "lawn" because I'm slowly removing all of it, anyway.

I would LOVE to try some of the "fancy" spiderworts (tradescantia). I've seen one called "Katie" (I think) that has chartreuse leaves and deep purple flowers. I'm fond of that color combo and would like to order it and some pink ones, but have never done so. And I sure don't find them at local nurseries. Maybe they don't do well here in Zone 9? Where did you guys get yours?

I have some dune sunflower that I bought a small tray of last year and never planted. I saw the other day (in between all the weeds that I DON'T like) that the sunflowers have escaped the tray and are growing like mad. I just need to weed around them to uncover them.

Treefrog, I forgot about porterweed. Oh, that's a splendid one. Although I don't think the tall, deep blue one is really a native, I guess you could call it a weed. And Cuban buttercup probably spreads like a weed, but if we bring it into Florida ourselves, does it really count? Something to ponder.

Milkweed is a great choice. It is happily spreading here, too. And there is a native portulaca that I really love...my grandmother called it moss rose...that has a deep pink bloom about 1/4" wide. I always skip over that one when weeding. I like it, too.

Wanda, I don't think spiderwort are choosy about sun versus shade, but to be honest, mine are only in sun about half a day. They seem really happy with that, but I have grown them in deep shade before with no problem.

And Ricky...come one, now. Surely you have something growing in your yard somewhere that could be considered a weed??? No milkweed? No porterweed? No other native wildflower that you haven't Rounded Up? (Round Upped?) Aw, say it ain't so! Just one??????????

You guys always give me something interesting to think about! Thanks for the responses!

Marcia

Well, in North Dakota in the 70's we called it ditchweed. Is that the one you're thinking about, Ricky?

In my garden I would not be without porterweed and milkweed. Love them! I have cuban buttercup on my 'want' list and plan to get one at Biosphere this weekend if they have it so it's good to hear someone likes it. Dune sunflower for sure. Some people consider passion vine a weed and that's a favorite of many of our, I think. Morning glory, too. Actually, if it grows in my garden and blooms, then I like it!

Kate

Marcia - a weed is defined as a plant that is growing in your garden that you don't want. All intruders into my soil are dispatched with vigor and RoundUp as soon as I spot them.

Kate - "ditchweed" ? "North Dakota" ? I have no knowledge of such things. :o)

spiderwort
pink oxalis
lantana
periwinkle
geranium carolinianum - weedy. but cute
wild passionflower - pops up around the yard
gaillardia

Olya

I remember spiderwort from my childhood, so when I was planting gardens at the home we built in NH I had to have it. Blue, pink, white (which I haven't found here in FL, anyone have it?) it never self seeded like it does here.

Ricky, that's pretty much what I said in my first post. It's only a weed if you don't want it. But I also was looking for plants that a lot of people would consider weeds but that some of us enjoy growing anyway. Naturally, I don't consider spiderwort a weed because I put it there on purpose. But others would. And since it grows wild in ditches, that's the kind of thing I was looking for.

My garden, even when it looks GOOD which it doesn't right now, is very unstructured. I love volunteers which pop up here and there and provide unexpected color combos. And things that are considered weeds by many (spiderwort, oxalis, etc) are things I put here and there on purpose, to promote a more naturalized look.

If something shows up uninvited in a space I'm not using, and I like how it looks, it gets to stay. Unless it is really considered a serious invasive, of course. No volunteer raintrees or chinese tallow, for instance.

Everyone brings something of their own personality to their gardens, and I reckon I'm just pretty casual about it all. Plus, I want the extra wildlife that native "weeds" often bring. So it works for me.

Good list, Olya!

Marcia

I love Spanish Needles (bidens pilosa) for the butterflies.
So much that I gathered seeds to get it started in my HOA yard (ha-ha) where it grew happily for several years.

I just moved and potted it's seedlings up along with my other "valued" garden plants just to be sure I had it in my new garden.
Well don't you know my neighbor next door has it growing everywhere.
So there, I love my weed so much I took it with me on my re-location.
I'd post a photo but can't find the camera, it's in a box somewhere...

You know, NG, I have quite a bit of that growing in an empty bed now, too. When I don't have anything else to go in there, I let it go so the butterflies can enjoy it. It can actually look pretty when it is full and covered with flowers. Which is right before it starts to look crappy, and then I get mad at myself for not pulling it out sooner!
Hehe. But I know just what you mean. It's a great butterfly plant.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Marcia

Question: Is it REALLY a weed if you can buy it? Native plant societies sell spiderwort,porterweed, milkweed etc.
I've never seen Spanish needles for sale nor Cuban butter cup...those I'd qualify as weeds...I'm just saying...

I'm kind of a control freak in the garden and don't like things that start taking over. I did have spiderwort at my lake house (sold) and it was popping up in a lot of place but it was OK, not too far out of control.

I grow porterweed and milkweed but if you BUY them are they a true weed?

Well, as we were just saying, a weed is really only something that grows where you don't want it. And as I was trying to explore with this post, what one person calls a wildflower, another calls a weed. Yet, even things that are called weeds by many can be favorite garden friends for others. Of course, weeds are "natives" by definition, in that they grow all by themselves out in the natural areas, without being introduced by Man, etc. That's a simplification of course, but what I mean is, while spiderwort is a native wildflower in Florida, it falls into the classification of weed for many. There's a fine line between wildflower and weed, I guess.

Anyway, I'm glad to see that a lot of folks have been growing things that are often consider weeds by others. Maybe it means they have found beauty where many people only find an annoying intruder.

Marcia

I LOVE weeds! Many herbs are considered weeds. I have dandelions, sheep sorrel, plantain in my garden to eat. I have some cranes bill because it is medicinal. Of course butterfly weed. I even took some weeds out of the yard and put them in my flower bed. I transplanted what maybe queen ann's lace (I hope) along with tassel weed. I am thinking the white Queen Ann's flowers will look great with the little red tassel weed tassels intermixed and I have it with a border of lavender sweet alyssum.

Good for you, ATL! My kind of thinking. I've never seen Queen Anne's Lace down here. (Does anyone know for sure if we have it?) I have seen other wildflowers that have a similar bloom, including one of the cowbanes, and also small elderberry plants. It will be intersting to see what you have.

Tassel flower is a favorite of mine. One year I even bought seeds for an "improved" hybrid, and it was really pretty. Little orange-red buttons all over the place. Another butterfly favorite.

Marcia

I think I agree with laura1, if you can buy it it is no longer a weed, it's gone mainstream.
I offer spanish needles on my seed trade list and someone requested it from California.

The other "weed" I brought with me is green shrimp plant. This weed I actually had to buy from Shady Oak Butterfly Farms because I just gave up trying to get it, find it, etc. It is the host for the Malachite butterfly which I WANT to see someday. (Has anyone got it in their yard??)

Even though I bought it I still think it's a weed, although a very special one. So I'm inconsistent in my definition of a weed.
I think if your grass mower person would mow it, pull it or spray it, it's a weed. I no longer have one of the those people so I don't have any weeds :)

I'm with Ricky for the most part....3 cheers for Round Up! Dennis gets it from work and we have it a large sprayer close at hand. Mostly for the grass and weeds that show up between pavers. however, we have had a yellow oxalis INVASION! It is everywhere. He actually attacked the lawn a full foot out from our front raised bed cause the clover was takin' over! As kid I loved finding clovers in our lawn. Down here it is a menace!

Now then, Porter weed is a favorite. I have it growing between my grape and berry arbor and our pool screen. It gets tall, thick and beautiful purple flowers.

Froggy...wild Portulaca? I was guessing that is what is growing under our Olive in the front circular bed. I have left it there because it looks like a nice ground cover. I will photo tomorrow and you can tell me if that is what I have. I also love your buttercups more than my yellow shrub ones. They creep along the ground and make a nice blanket of blooms.

Marcia, you captured that beautiful bee wonderfully!

Marcia, if it blooms with big lacy flowers I will post a picture. It could be something else, but the leaves do smell carroty... Regardless, I Don't care as long as it has big lacy white flowers - I am not going to eat it. The leaves are very thin and lacy and the stems have hairs on them. The flowers should tell us - Queen Anne's lace is supposed to have a dot in the middle of the flower, that is how I remember it.

Weeds....hm....I guess the Purple showers could be considered a weed....I bought one plant and now they are everywhere....I love them though....so pretty and always in bloom....also cosmos...I have them popping up all over the place....they reseed themselves and come up whenever they feel like it. But they are also very pretty and add a great bright splash of color in my yard.

Purple Showers (not the STERILE one you can get from Florida Friendly flowers, but the OTHER one that reseeds) isn't what I had in mind, exactly, because it is not a native Florida wildflower or weed. I think I maybe didn't explain what I was wanting to explore very well. I was thinking of things that grow wild naturally in this state and that a lot of people would consider a weed, but that you have adopted as a "wildflower" that you love in your own garden.

At any rate, there have been some very interesting responses here, even if it took a different track than I was imagining when I posted.

Cindee, I have a small spray bottle of Round Up that I have never emptied. I use it very seldom. Just on the nutgrass in the brick path. I burn the other weeds out of the bricks, but the nutgrass is back the very next morning, so I DO use RoundUp on that.

My "lawn" is full of dichondra and clover, and I'm fine with it. Once it's mowed, it's green and smooth, and that's all I care about. And eventually, it will be gone anyway, as we expand our beds and put in more paths. I pull the weeds in my beds, so I don't need the Round Up for that, either.

Atreelady, good luck! I hope it DOES turn out to be Queen Anne's Lace...such a pretty wildflower (weed?). Let us know what the blooms turn out to be.

NG, I concede if it is for sale, it may have "crossed over." ;o) I have what I think is green shrimp plant that pops up in my front bed from time to time. But we don't get malachites up here, so I pull it out, since it isn't especially pretty.

Another good Florida wildflower/weed that I would LIKE to get, but haven't yet is blue-eyed grass. So pretty in bloom! But I can't figure out how to keep it from being pulled as a sedge or something when it is out of bloom. I think I would "lose" it and yank it up accidentally. Anyone growing it?

Marcia

I don't grow blue-eyed grass because I refuse to BUY it but I do like it. This time of year I see it growing in mass in the ditches and I wonder how I can get out there in the median with my shovel and get some.

I believe that Blue-Eyed Grass disappears after it has gone to seed. The thing to do is to not mow it until well after the seeds have set.

I have a nice bunch right in the front. They were the offspring of a purchased pot. (It just takes one pot, ya know....Fertilizer and let it bloom and seed where you want the next year's crop.)

Well, I did have a nice bunch last year, but my sis came and mowed and there are not so many this year. I sprayed the ones I found with dilute Miracle Grow and am hoping for the best this year. They are distinctive little clumps of grass. Mine sort of lay flat in whorls.

I also have my eye on a few spots to rustle. I think just one shovel full of the seedy soil will get them going for next year. I think they are like flocks that way.

The first time I saw Tangerine lantana I was a passenger in a car. We were going south at Lithia Springs Road and Highway 60 in Brandon. There is a little grave yard right there.

As lantana will, it was growing right at the corner in the sand and blazing heat. Such a color! The last of the bloom is a VERY deep red, red, orange-red.

This must have been 30 years ago! I am dam near a native and had never ever seen that color! Just the usual orange and pink varieties. Next time, I saw it in landscape along with the gold lantana ringed around the base of palm trees. Taller tangerine in the center next to the palms with the sprawling gold on the outer ring. Very nice combo.

Shortly after that it showed up in the big box stores.

I am moving mine from too much shade to the hottest and grittiest part of the yard, just under the mailbox.

I looked for a link but none of them do the color justice. Most shown are immature flowers. The color I am speaking of shows up at the end of the bloom cycle.

Well, these are the tolerable "weeds" that I didn't introduce into my landscape, but I don't mind having around.

Dandelions
Oxalis
Spiderwort

and lots of little things that I can't identify. Currently my backyard looks like a prairie... overrun with various little weedy wildflowers. Pleasant, but messy.

acapulco gold, anyone?

Fawnridge,
got any more weed seeds?
I'm tired of all my weeds.

Marcia, is nutgrass that tough thin ba*tard that you can't seem to pull up the roots no matter how hard you try? My knuckles get sore from this bugger. It's long and winding and tough as nails! We get this in our front bed often and the top stretches out like a tough vine.

Hi
Gee, if you took out all my "weeds" I'd have nothing left lol After 25 years I've learned to keep "invasives" alive for more than a few years ."Easy to grow " about 3 years ."Difficults and Needs special care" turn to dust on the way home lol.
Of those that pop up on their own all i have to do is mention that they are rather attractive they'll be gone in
6 months tops . I was just thinking that the wild morning glory does look almost attractive growing in the shrubs.
Maybe it will work?? I suspect they know I'm only kidding lol gary

Hahahaha...I love it, Gary! Especially the ones that turn to dust on the way home!

Cindee, nutgrass or nut sedge is a tuft of bright green "grass" that is very difficult to pull out because the roots actually originate in CHINA! ;o) If left in place long enough, it gets a small bloom thingie that looks like a round green spur, but is soft and doesn't poke you. When I burn it out of the bricks, the VERY next morning, there is at least 1" to 2" of new growth by the time I walk outside. I'm not exaggerating that part (like the CHINA part). So I have to put Round Up on it to get it out of the bricks. It's really a PAIN.

Marcia

I forgot to thank you for the extra info on blue-eyed grass. Maybe the thing to do is have it in a container or at least a contained area, so I know where it is. It's so pretty when it blooms, I'd really like to try a bit of it.
I appreciate your taking the time to share your experiences with it.

Marcia

Oooooooo, hope I get spider wort!

I've got this huge clover in my wild corner (aka weed corner) that has big bright lavendar flowers. It's got big pretty clover leaves, not like the normal little annoying buggers. It's so pretty I just love it.

Sounds like the pink oxalis, acoreana. I love it, too. The yellow one is a pain, but the pink one is just so pretty. I have a purple shamrock (also an oxalis) that has lavender blooms, and I love it, too. It has huge leaves that have corners on each section, rather than being rounded like a typical shamrock. I don't know the variety (should look it up, I guess) but it dies back in winter and comes back every spring.

Marcia

I think masses of Blue-eyed grass are spectacular in bloom. Drifts interspersed with English violets (another weed) and a few shrubs can have a nice, semi-wild look. The only negative I can see in the BEG is that its leaves tend to burn some in the summer sun.