The Tortoise Table

Found these in the garden today...safe or not

Hi Natalie,

The first plant looks like one of the hardy geraniums to me, and is fine to feed (although I wish I could see how it comes out of the ground as sometimes young Delphiniums look similar).
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/plan ... OjlBaLauNI or this
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/plan ... OjmbaLauNI

The second one is something I absolutely know but can't think of now -- Lin will probably know when she is around.

The third one down (with the brick tiles or wall in the background) looks like one of the Poppies -- I think an Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum) and a no feed. We don't actually have a photo of it in our poppy entries, but here is the relevant entry http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/plan ... Ojlo6LauNI

Nina

Do these pics help at all? It's definitely a safe feed though

I agree with Nina in that its a hardy Geranium and as with all the geraniums they're ok to feed.

Lin

Thanks Lin! And do you know what the second plant is...the one Nina isn't sure about?

Oh goodness....I gave Morel a leaf of the geranium and now someone has said they think it's buttercup I hope he'll be ok?!

And could the second plant be self heal...a moderation feed? X

Hi Natalie,
Yes, it is true there are species of Buttercups that look very similar to that leaf -- especially the Meadow Buttercup, but I still think it's most likely to be a geranium. Don't worry too much, lots of tortoises nibble Buttercups and come to no harm at all, and your tortoise would have to eat lots and lots to do any damage, so a bit of a leaf should be fine. I would be interested to see what flower that plant has -- even a flower bud could tell us which it is, so keep an eye on it and send us a photo when it has a bud or flowers.
And aren't you clever! Yes, I think that the second photo is indeed Self-heal! It was on the tip of my tongue and I couldn't think of it. Again, it's always wise to wait until it has a flower to be doubly sure, but I do think you nailed that one.

Nina
P.S. By the way, for some reason your smilies are coming out absolutely enormous in your messages, so you have to scroll down a long way to see the text. I'm not sure why that is happening -- are you seeing them as enormous too, or do they look normal on your screen?

They're huge for me too but I quite like that!! I will refrain from posting them now though....

LOL -- I don't want to cramp your style -- and the large smilies certainly make me smile (I just wondered how they got that way)!
I'll post one here and see if it also comes out big

Nina

Nope mine come out small. LOL -- yours are a bit like "THE ALIEN SMILIES THAT ATE GREATER MANCHESTER!!!!"

Nina

I'm not using the smiles from the forum....mine are from my phone keyboard

I wonder if that other one that it thought to be self heal could be Ajuga. Both are ok in moderation but I would wait a while for the start of the flower which will only be a week or two but that way we can be sure..

Lin


Natalieb wrote:
> Thanks Lin! And do you know what the second plant is...the one Nina isn't
> sure about?

Ahh, that's interesting, Lin. I had wondered about Ajuga, but thought that from the photo, the plant seems to be spreading out horizontally, flat along the ground, which is a bit more like Self-Heal, but it could be Ajuga (I'm used to seeing the Ajuga that has redder leaves, although I know that there is lots with green leaves too). Also, from the scale of the photo I couldn't tell how big the leaves were, and I think that the leaves of Ajuga are a bit bigger than Self-heal, but not sure.

Nina