 |
Symphytum officinale |
 |
| Common name |
comfrey |
| Family |
boraginaceae |
| Life cycle |
perennial (Z4-9) |
| Flowers |
purple (spring) |
| Size |
2' |
| Light |
sun-part shade |
I've considered this a weed till now - since its large hairy leaves stubbornly reappeared soon after each of my many attempts to remove it from our side garden. This year, I guess I slacked in my control efforts for long enough that the plant had an opportunity to bloom - which allowed me to identify it as comfrey. Should I reclassify it as a wildflower? At any rate, I'd rather it didn't try to push up through other perennials. I may attempt a relocation at some point...
|
We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston. About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Symphytum officinale
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| Amanda | Mar 22, 2009 | Comfrey is a great plant, but once it's in a spot, it's extremely difficult to move - the tiniest bit of broken root will grow into a whole new plant in only a year or two. I would say keep it where it is. |
| Gardener Ted | Aug 08, 2011 | I have been looking for a name for this plant since it came up from nowhere at the edge of our woodlot, next to my garden five years ago. Two feet is a far cry from how mine grows, however. This year the first growth grew to well over 4 feet before it fell outwards. It soon sent up a new batch of growth and has been flowering now for almost 8 weeks. The second growth is over three feet tall. The plant has never selfseeded, nor spread to any other areas of the garden. One 9'diameter plant is enough, I guess! |
| Debbie, from AZ | Dec 28, 2011 | I've read that comfrey is a great Compost crop. I'd like to try it again, so I can have a good supply of leafy nitrogen for making compost. You might try it, next to your compost bins. |
| Jeanette Broekhuis | Aug 15, 2014 | Just cut the leaves off (again and again) and add them to your compost bin or scatter them under your plants as a kind of mulch. Great source of potassium which is good for fruit, vegetables and flowers. And check out comfrey tea on google for making liquid fertilizer. |
I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to
leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors
to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if
appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an
ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including
html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a
comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my
guestbook. If you
have a question that needs a personal response, please
e-mail me.
|
