Garden Volunteer

To me, a weed is just . . . a plant that shows up unbidden in my garden.  A "volunteer" . . . so to speak.   Sometimes I let the volunteers stay and play, on purpose.

One of my personal favorite "volunteers" is the pokeweed.  I often let a few of them stick around in my garden.  Which is probably a huge mistake (because they have a tremendous tap root, and I'll actually never get rid of them at this point).  But it really isn't a bad looking weed.  Nice and full; almost like a sturdy shrub you might even plant intentionally.  And look at these sweet little flowers!

And then THIS happens.  (I mean, really!  Look at the color of that stem!  This is not color-enhanced or edited in any way.  This is just what it looks like.)

And then THIS happens!

Birds love' em.

But they're poisonous to humans.

But. . . oh, well!  At least a few of these . . . are fun to have in my garden.  (But I won't snack on those gorgeous berries.)

Comments

[Bonny]

Only you could make pokeweed seem like a good thing! I will admit I yank 'em out so I've never seen the cool pink stems, flowers, and berries. Maybe I'll have to look for something good in all the creeping charlie and purslane in my beds.

[Vicki]

Wow. That is GORGEOUS in all stages!! I'm not sure I've ever seen that plant.

I made a cross stitch piece years ago for my mom: MAY ALL YOUR WEEDS BE WILDFLOWERS.

(My wish for you, too.)

[Carole]

I love the purple stems of pokeweed. The berries are poisonous, as you said, but did you know you can eat the shoots that come up in the spring? They taste like asparagus.

[Jo]

No Pokeweed in Colorado? It is beautiful and made me wonderful how,plants are categorized as weeds?

[Mary]

I always learn something ... and even in the comments this time! (of course I didn't even know it was a weed ;-)

[margene]

I had no idea the flowers were so beautiful or that the stems turned amazing colors of magenta...then berries, too! I'm not sure I've seen a pokeweed in our garden, but if I do, I'm going to let it stay, you know, for the birds.