Are these plants or weeds?

Hi all, I have two plants or weeds that I need help identifying:

The first one: (one pic)



It looks a lot like Rosemary and seems to be growing in various places in the garden.

The second one: (two pics)





The gardener that laid my turf said that these were plants and not weeds - they seem be very persistent and keep growing through my bark with fairly deep roots.

Thanks, Nick

 

Hi nick,
Destroy! The first one is not Rosemary, it's Mare's Tail aka Rat's Tail, I think it's a colociual thing. It's a pain to get rid of, the roots run really deep, but will spread everywhere if you don't act fast!
The second I think look like brambles, again another weed which will spread like mad. ( I could be wrong though)
Beki x

 

Well the first one is Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) which can get very invasive even if it is a very interesting plant

Here's some more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsetail

***Edit***
Awwww i wanted to be first :*(

 

The bottom picture looks like bramble and the middle one looks like either eldar or sycamore.

 

Oh no, that means I have "Rat's Tail" all over the garden ... YIKES ! They keep srouting out in different places all over the garden, not as clump but individually. They are even in my lawn but I keep the grass low, so hopefully they won't be a problem there.

 

Hi Celia - both pictures are of the same plant. The first one I've allowed to establish for some time c3months and the second pic are new shoots (c1 week old). I don't think either are bramble because of the rate of new shoots and even when left for some time they don't develop any thorns.

Perhaps it's eldar or sycamore ?

 

Kedi, dig it out? The roots can go down 3METRES. The only weedkiller which will touch it is Glyphosate, and this needs to be sprayed on when the shoot is still young, before the foliage fully opens. And, because it grows so fast and sporadically, it needs to be done virtually daily.

 

Oh, I didn't know that the roots went down that far, David! Wait till I tell DiL that! I don't know what kind of spray hubby has, must show him this post.

 

David is right it's one hell of a pest I have had the problem of horses tails for years I found the roots under the floor when I had it up in the front room they are like black boot laces, I have tried all the remedies even some of the ones that are now banned to no avail however I have made progress in the last 2 years by using a weed wand(flame gun) simple to use as soon as the shoots poke through I zap them they are definitely weakening.

 

We used to have it on one of allotment plots before we moved over to another piece of ground on the allotment.The chap who took over our old plot decided to have sheep on all the plots that he took on and within a few years all the horse tail had gone.We had tried to get rid of it by spraying Roundup on it,even stamping on the plants to break open the stems first but it still didn't get rid of it.Only the sheep managed that.:thumb:

Shiney,we found that the spores seem to come first and then the green foliage later and a friend of ours who worked for the Ordanace Surveyors said that it was found 40ft down years ago in one place that they were surveying so 70ft must be a record:eek:

 

Horse tails are a real pain for us too!! They come up through the black weed control fabric too. They are a fern - hence the spores!! The second photo is a weed too - dunno what it is, but we have that too!! The horsetails are a sign of poor soil! They'll even grow in sand!

 

I think the second plant is a variety of autumn flowering anemone. Grows up to ~1+ m and has white or pink flowers in late summer early autumn. I like it for the autumn flowers, but it can be dug up without too much difficulty. The roots are shallow. But if it has been established a few years there will be a lot of roots, so it might be difficult to get all the bits out in one go.

 

It doesn't look like elder or sycamore to me, and I have large quantities of both - Maybe Japanese windflower? this is a type of Anemone, as Beechleaf says.