Toadflax - A Pretty Garden Flower also considered to be a Weed!
TOADFLAX TRIVIA
Yellow Toadflax is a native of south-central Eurasia. It was used there used for medicinal purposes and to create organic fabric dyes.
In the late 1600s Yellow Toadflax was introduced into North America where it was used as an ornamental gardne plant and for herbal folk medicine remedies.
Despited its attractive appearance it is now considered to be a noxious weeed in Western States of the USA
Sometimes known as Snapdragon.
POPLUAR VARIETIES OF TOADFLAX
Yellow Toadflax
Toadflax Linaria
Alpine Toadflax
Purple Toadflax
Dalmatian Toadflax
Ivy Leaved Toadflax
Linaria Alpina
PLANT SOCIETIES
TOADFLAX (LINARIA)
Toadflax is the common English
name for several varietiis of related plants in the family Scrophulariaceae
and Plantaginaceae including Snapdragon or Antirrhinum.
Despite its pretty flowers some gardeners regard Toadflax as a weed as it spreads so easily in the garden.waste grounds, grasslands, roadside verges and hedgerows . It grows well in Nitrogen rich soils.
The common Yellow Toadflax has a history of being used as a herbal medicine - It is believed to have an effect on the liver and in the past was used as a diuretic .
TOADFLAX - LINARIA
The flower that most people know as Toadflax is Toadflax (Linaria) - one of the prettiest flowers in the garden and most useful of these is the Annual Toadflax (Linaria rnaroccana) with slender, 18 inch spikes of flowers, rather like tiny antirrhinums, in a variety of rich colours in summer.
Toadflax Linaria is quite hardy and can be grown from seed sown in March or April where the plants are to flower.
It likes sun, is nct fussy about soil, and seedlings should be thinned to about 6 in.
ALPINE TOADFLAX
The Alpine Toadflax (L. alpina) ia rather like a miniature version of Linaria. It grow to about 6 inches high with purple or shrimp-pink flowers.
It is readily raised from seed but is a perennial, so it is not necessary to raise it afresh each year.
This plant is often seen growing wild - look out for it in Churchyard walls
PURPLE TOADFLAX
The Purple Toadflax (L. purpurea) has the merit that it will grow practically anywhere but it seeds itself about so freely that it can become a nuisance.
Purple Toadflax is a perennial with slender spikes of purple or pinkish flowers, to 4 ft. high, throughout the summer.
GROWING ALPINE TOADFLAX FROM SEED
Seed should be germinated in spring in a frame or greenhouse and the seedlings transferred to well-drained soil in a sunny rock garden or dry wall.
GARDENING ARTICLES AND ADVICE FROM GARDEN GROWER
How to grow Toadflax also known as Snapdragon - Tips and advice on Growing Toadflax(Linaria) from seed in the Flower Garden. Toadfalx is a pretty flower sometines treated as a weed.