Okay, what's this then?

[Jenny Green]

It's all right Mole, I was just kidding.
Jane, thanks for the warning. I only have two small patches of it in pretty bare soil so I'll be very thorough and hopefully get rid of it.

[oldherbaceous]

Alan i did find a few more common names for it though,Celandine, lesser
Figwort
Pilewort
Brighteye
Butter
Butter and cheese
Butterchops
Cheesecups
Crain
Crazy
Crazy Bet
Crazy cup
Cream and butter
Crowpightle
Dillcup
Foalfoot
Fogwort
Foxwort
Frog's foot
Gentleman's cap and frills
Gilcup
Golden cups
Golden guineas
Golden stars
Goldy knob
Kingcup
King's evil
Legwort
Powderwort
Spring messenger
Starflower
Starlight

I bet theres no other Country that has so many lovely common names for there wild flowers, very pleasing i am thinking.

[Malk]

Herby, that sounds like a crazy poem. My neighbour has some of this I think and it's been crawling under our fence.

Does it choke other things out? I need ground cover where it's growing so I left it, but I have blueberry bushes, bulbs and other things there as well.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Malk, if it was my poetry it would be crazy,
but i'm sure there are some nice words there that you could use.
Although it is very invasive, i wouldn't say it smothers things as it is faily low growing, and dies down in the summer.

[alan refail]

Malk

If you want poetry, here is Wordsworth on the celandine. He wrote two more
Perhaps we should not dig it up, but paise it.


PANSIES, lilies, kingcups, daisies,
Let them live upon their praises;
Long as there's a sun that sets,
Primroses will have their glory;
Long as there are violets,
They will have a place in story:
There's a flower that shall be mine,
'Tis the little Celandine.

Eyes of some men travel far
For the finding of a star;
Up and down the heavens they go,
Men that keep a mighty rout!
I'm as great as they, I trow,
Since the day I found thee out,
Little Flower!--I'll make a stir,
Like a sage astronomer.

Modest, yet withal an Elf
Bold, and lavish of thyself;
Since we needs must first have met
I have seen thee, high and low,
Thirty years or more, and yet
'Twas a face I did not know;
Thou hast now, go where I may,
Fifty greetings in a day.

Ere a leaf is on a bush,
In the time before the thrush
Has a thought about her nest,
Thou wilt come with half a call,
Spreading out thy glossy breast
Like a careless Prodigal;
Telling tales about the sun,
When we've little warmth, or none.

Poets, vain men in their mood!
Travel with the multitude:
Never heed them; I aver
That they all are wanton wooers;
But the thrifty cottager,
Who stirs little out of doors,
Joys to spy thee near her home;
Spring is coming, Thou art come!

Comfort have thou of thy merit,
Kindly, unassuming Spirit!
Careless of thy neighbourhood,
Thou dost show thy pleasant face
On the moor, and in the wood,
In the lane;--there's not a place,
Howsoever mean it be,
But 'tis good enough for thee.

Ill befall the yellow flowers,
Children of the flaring hours!
Buttercups, that will be seen,
Whether we will see or no;
Others, too, of lofty mien;
They have done as worldlings do,
Taken praise that should be thine,
Little, humble Celandine!

Prophet of delight and mirth,
Ill-requited upon earth;
Herald of a mighty band,
Of a joyous train ensuing,
Serving at my heart's command,
Tasks that are no tasks renewing,
I will sing, as doth behove,
Hymns in praise of what I love!

[oldherbaceous]

I think Mr Wordsworth must have had a bit of spare time on his hands when he wrote that poem.

[Jenny Green]

Oh that was lovely! I really like this line:
Spreading out thy glossy breast
Like a careless Prodigal

I'll be thinking that when I dig it up at the weekend.

[Alison]

I agree that by the summer it has disappeared, so it doesn't do lasting damage. However, we have it absolutely EVERYWHERE, and I have given up all hope of getting rid of it. I had this lovely plan for our orchard, to underplant all the pink and white blossom with masses of blue and white: so I planted scores of white and pinky-tinged narcissus, plus loads of scillas, chionodoxas, ornithogalums etc. Then I eagerly awaited the spring. The narcissus came up fine; but the rabbits ate every scrap of blue; the grass was entirely carpeted in golden celandines; and Brian mowed the ornithogalums by accident before they flowered.
C'est la vie....
I now have a white and golden orchard.
Alison.

[peter]

Alan, online the word is specifically mentioned as "Buckinghamshire dialect" and the word "pightle" means a small enclosure or plot of land.

[oldherbaceous]

I thought it sounded a bit common, for a word from Bedfordshire, sorry in advance Primrose.

[alan refail]

Thanks Peter

I knew it was somewhere foreign beginning with B.