Verbena bonariensis heading off down the road….

Dear Readers, it’s very interesting to me how garden plants make their first tentative steps into the wild, but sometimes it’s less of a step, and more of an enthusiastic leap followed by a sprint. On our road, in East Finchley, my favourite front garden planted some Verbena bonariensis, and this year it’s advanced about 30 metres up the street in the general direction of my house. I’d already noticed this phenomenon on another one of the County Roads, but this is the first time I’ve really paid attention to the speed of spread. Plus,  I’m thinking that the prevailing wind must blow gently eastwards. I shall have to keep an eye on the plant’s advance, provided nobody tidies up too much, or the Barnet Weedkiller man doesn’t pay a visit.

And in the meantime, there has been a remarkable spread of this amaranth species. I wrote about it before here, and have come to the conclusion that it’s probably Reflexed Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus) – in my previous piece, I noted that someone had suggested that amaranth seeds often come in with the sand used for building, and I speculated that maybe it had been introduced when our EV chargers were introduced. At any rate, it is advancing along the gutter and into the tree pits at a steady rate – it doesn’t seem as speedy as the verbena, but it’s determined nevertheless, and has clearly found a niche that few other plants are prepared to exploit.

So, yet again I am amazed at the resilience of plants, and of the variety to be found even in  a quiet back street in North London. Has anyone else noticed either of these plants becoming common in your area? Or what ‘weeds’ have really taken off? Do share!