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rainbowgardener
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mullein

So I had two big mullein plants that were in their blooming year (it's a biennial). One was blooming and one was getting ready to. Then our real estate lady said that they looked too much like weeds, and they had to go, to show our house. (Who ever saw a 5 foot tall weed, with a big flower spike?) So I pulled the smaller one and cut the one that was blooming already in half, just chopped the main stem off half way down. Now, it has four flower buds coming out in a circle around where it was chopped! If I had known it would do that, I would have been chopping them all the time!

Mine usually just get one flower spike, like this:

Image
https://www.twofrog.com/images/mullein.jpg

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I guess you could collect seeds and take a bit of this garden with you :D

I hardly ever have volunteers because the birds seem to like these seeds.... Right now, the only plant is growing out of cracks in the driveway. :roll:

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rainbowgardener
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They must like little cracks like that. I had one that I pulled earlier that popped up in a little crack in a wooden bench, and the one I recently pulled was right outside a flower bed, kind of wedged under the bed edging.

I planted the original one a few years ago, brought it over from where we used to live. It has come back every year since then, and gradually spreading. I noticed that our neighbor across the driveway now has one. She must not mind, since she is letting it grow, but I'm betting it is an offspring of mine also. But it isn't aggressive or multiplying a whole bunch.

I think it will be prettier with the four flower stalks.

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applestar
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I'm definitely trying that next chance I get. :wink:

...it's funny you posting about mullein because I went to get more bags of Douglas fir shavings and noticed one growing where a wooded area separating two rural properties opened up to a strip of mowed open. I remeber thinking to myself "Oooh! Mullein!" as I drove by. :()

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GardeningCook
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Location: Upper Piedmont area of Virginia, Zone 7a

I love Mullein & have quite a few growing around here that I let be. Not only are they interesting to look at (especially if you manage to have them growing at the back of a perennial border instead of willy-nilly like I do - lol!), but the birds LOVE them come ripe-seed time.

In addition, they have an interesting herbal history. Looking them up will find dozens of medicinal uses (most that must be taken only with more investigation &/or a "grain of salt"), a few benign ones being that the large leaves were used as both diapers & wound coverings, & the dry stalks were coated/soaked in tallow & used as torches.

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rainbowgardener
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They have a nickname of "Quaker rouge." In the old days good Quaker ladies were not supposed to wear any make up. Those fuzzy leaves are mildly irritating when rubbed on the skin, so the ladies would rub their cheeks with them to pinken up.



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