Macleaya cordata ( the big leaf) & Foeniculum vulgare 4 August 2025

 Mala yerba no muere. Bad weeds don't die.

 Miss Jekyll is a true companion

That Noble Weed

 My mother was a snob who often said, “Hay poca gente fina como nosotros.”(There are few people as well-mannered and educated as we.)

 Rosemary who introduced me to gardening and to roses was a snob, too.  Somehow I could not escape her or my mother. I sort of became a snob.

In our Kerrisdale garden we had the finest of the rare perennials, roses and not your usual variegated hostas. But we had to persistent weeds that we liked. Rosemary planted Bronze Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare dulce 'Rubrum' in our centre rose beds as companions to them and the same time the bed did not look sparse. On the boulevard fence (45^th Avenue) I planted many Macleaya cordata. They got to be 7ft tall. Both of these plants came back every year in larger quantities. The bronze fennel reverted to plain green.

Both these plants are active in my back lane garden. They are all descendants of our plants from 1987/88 proving that weeds can be long-lasting.

Today when I cut some of the plants for today’s scan I smiled. Somehow in spite of these weeds, I am still a snob.  My Rosemary would agree.