Growing Wild

I believe it is Sticki....lovely flower, hasn't it?...:>)

looks like it Sticki, lovely flowers aren't they :-)

i thought how pretty they were, i think there were a few different colours, at the time i didnt realise what it was

i think it isnt just a pretty face!!!

Lol :-))

if it is the right stuff, its good for all sorts of things!

yes that's right makes good liquid feed if you don't mind the smell..

It is Comphrey, also by definition of the place you found it. It is typical flower growing along streams and rivers.

...you don´t need flowers, Sticki, autumn is the season for picking roots.

thanks katarina, the flowers are helpful for identifying thats what i was thinking!! this river is nearly an hour away from me! I will have to look more locally!!

well spotted Sticki, looks helathy, having fritters right now : )

ah, thanks stevie!

i was looking for it around here and then remembered where i had seen it ~ i think, as kat says its happier by water and there isnt much very near to my house. :-(

Nice to see all the wildflowers in the hedgerows and on the lanes, ah well it will soon be spring again. How I am hating these dark nights already. Have had to take to knitting again to keep me occupied. :o0) Been looking through bulb catalogues tonight it is sad when you cannot get out in the garden after supper. I do miss being out there.

i took that photo on a lovely day oliveoil, i was lucky with the weather and i did appreciate it at the time however, i dont mind it being darker either, now i have an excuse to be cooking in the kitchen!!!

think I just hate the start of the late nights, once I get used to it I am ok. I just need to re-adjust :o0 think also with the weather not being so good it just seems to have come around so quickly. I will be ok by the middle of November (hopefully) :O) lol

i quite like september, crisp, colourful and when we get those blue skies its perfect!

however it was 4 degrees when i went to work the other morning...........brrrrrrrrrr!!

Gosh that was cold - brrrrrrrr! glad I do not have to get up for work anymore. lol. :O) we have had a little sunshine today but not much, it rained all morning but that is good because the garden was ready for a drink. I did get some work done out there too put in some more plants (crocosmia which Karensue sent me) and moved some stuff around and did a little tidying up. I love being out in the garden need to cut the grass again but the mower is at the menders and it will have to wait until I get it back think it might be the last cut if the weather is going to start to be cooler. One less job to do though, not a fan of cutting grass. x

we had dark clouds all day here, but only a few drops of rain, as you say the garden could do with a drink!!

we have to cut the moss here, rather than the grass!!!

lol :O) well it is green!

exactly!!! the trees around it mean that whatever we do it will probably always be moss!

We cut moss as well Sticki, It needs only morning dew to keep it green.Feels like a carpet to walk on. I have comfrey in several places on the property but the flowers are long gone. I like it because bees are crazy about it. The flowers on mine are more purple than the one in your photo.

Do you get pink and White comfrey too? It might have had a purplish tinge klahanie but the camera doesn't always seem to like colours like that.

I have only the purple one Sticki, They are very unplesant to the touch but it is an attractive plant in it's own way.

It could be Borage!!!!!

doesnt borage have a different shaped flower?

i found some today!!! there were still a few flowers too!

Borage has all those small hairs on the flowers n stems, they loom similar but leaves are differnt. There were some over on the veg patch from a previous neighbour, thyey look great in the frost

got a few pics on my photo page 28

comphrey
http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/153055-comphrey/member/stevietheterrible

borage in the morning dew
http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/171196-a-few-pics-of-borage-in-the-morning-light-2/member/stevietheterrible

Forgot to add, even though Borage looks great i got rid of it as if you get one of those hairs in your eyes, it can cause alot of damage

the only thing i knew about borage is the flowers are really pretty and you can put them in ice cubes to float in your drink!!!!

I checke the old Steve´s photos of "borage" and yes - . 1. very nice photos 2. Charming natural plant, with sunrays adding more charm to it :).
Steve, why do you eat so much pomphrey?

Only had it twice kat just to see what its about but actually those enzymes must have kicked in really soon as i actually felt good after eating the fritters.
Wont have it everyday, promise ; )

Hi Steve, still curious, do you only feel better or is it manifested in something else, too?
Please do not kill me, but feeling good is no proof of any medicinal effect, it is sometimes called placebo effect. But i believe now at leat it doesn t kill immediately :)you know, I am underground sort, as Ibelieve more in C. Roots then leaves.

We had comfrey in our other garden where we lived and it attracted the bees and butterflies. It was in sunshine for half a day.

its a pretty plant, it looks lovely along side the rivers

Well still alive Kat ; )

I've heard of Comfrey oil and ointment to help joints and healing, but never heard of it being used to take internally.

Absolutely, Lindak. In Central Europe including Germany and Austria, you can buy lot of gels and ointments with extracts from Comphrey root. Used mostly on injuries of muscles, joints but on varices too. Its healing potential is however greater when used naturally, e.g. when you use just mass made by crushing the root mixed with duck fat/whatever fat (it makes kind of plaster on joint during the night). The root contains allantoin and some other substances, which work like vehicles penetrating deeply to the bones and joints and healing them. Simply - the more serious is the joint problem, the better yo use natural compress.

Steve@hope, you are still feeling good :)

Think they use it on horses as well for healing.

I think so.

Fit as a horse : )

I think that it has the common name of bone-knit , and it is used homeopathically , but I don't know how it would be administered .
The one that arrived in our gaden has white flowers , but I did see one like your pic , Stiki , by a river .
OH made some fertilizer with the masses of leaves that we had , but as Surrie says , a peg on the nose would be helpful .

Lol, Steve.:)))

the white one is also pretty i think driad;

katarina i tried some raw and then mixed some in a pakora, they werent bad!!

This is very interesting about all the medicinal effects of Comfrey! I was going to say that around here I never see blue comfrey, only pale pinkish and sometimes pale yellow flowers. I've never seen a blue one, it's lovely and very similar to my Mertensia Virginica which also grows in woodland, but has glaucous foliage. But as you know, I love blue flowers...all of them!

I wonder if it depends on the soil type karen ~ like hydrangeas?

Funny, I was wondering that myself after I posted!

:-)

Says here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfrey
in the description, that Russian comphrey (common one here) ''has flowers which tend to be more blue or violet''.
Here they are violet and the soil is very rich (ex pigs)

I'll give those 'liver damage' papers a read but as they are probably funded by big pharma or wont equate to human consumption will take them with a pinch of salt

comfrey and salt ~ new flavour??

thanks stevie, so if you grow comfrey it could be one way of testing the soil ~ purple flowers = good rich soil??