Is This Cuckoo Flower ?
Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 10:40 pm
I have been looking round my local patch over the last few weeks identifying where particular foodplants grow. I have not been able to find Cuckoo Flower anywhere except one particular boggy area where there are a few plants.
I visited my parents this evening and was surprised to see this growing out of my parents lawn. Could somebody confirm that this is Cuckoo Flower. There are maybe 10 or so individual plants but they are all quite small less than 6 inches high. I have never noticed them there before, either recently or when I was growing up. Unusually they have not mowed their lawn recently due to the weather so maybe that is why I have not seen them before. My Mum proudly told me she pulls it out because it gets every where. I think she is getting confused with a similar looking plant, Hairy Bitter Cress which has similar leaves.
I have brought one plant back home with the intention of planting it in my garden, I have also instucted my Mum to preserve the plants or save the seed for me. Will I regret this? I have a small garden that is generally on the wet side for most of the year. Is Cuckoo Flower a perennial plant and if so does it increase in size/height each year?
I visited my parents this evening and was surprised to see this growing out of my parents lawn. Could somebody confirm that this is Cuckoo Flower. There are maybe 10 or so individual plants but they are all quite small less than 6 inches high. I have never noticed them there before, either recently or when I was growing up. Unusually they have not mowed their lawn recently due to the weather so maybe that is why I have not seen them before. My Mum proudly told me she pulls it out because it gets every where. I think she is getting confused with a similar looking plant, Hairy Bitter Cress which has similar leaves.
I have brought one plant back home with the intention of planting it in my garden, I have also instucted my Mum to preserve the plants or save the seed for me. Will I regret this? I have a small garden that is generally on the wet side for most of the year. Is Cuckoo Flower a perennial plant and if so does it increase in size/height each year?