My Rosemary’s and my garden is full of splendid rare perennials and lovely old roses. There are no weeds. Any that dare appear are immediately removed.

But there is one weed, Macleaya cordata (a member of the poppy family) that does nicely in our garden. I have only purchased one in my life and that may have been around 1990. Since then it has multiplied and is doing just fine in our eldest daughter’s, Alexandra, garden in Lillooet.

The plant is mostly green with leaves that have gray undersides. In maturity the plant can be 7 ft tall. It is a weed but if you do not want it to be where it is you cut it at the bottom. It does not take over or affect its surrounding plants of nobler parentage!

In Spanish we have the saying “Mala yierba no muere,” which translates to “bad weeds don’t die.” Spanish may be more forgiving that English as yierba translates to herb. There is no specific word in Spanish for weed.

In my native Argentina we use the word yuyos for weeds and it does mean weed.

As for me when I look at any our macleayas I smile and think with wonder that they are all descendants of one plant from long ago.