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Help me ID two, maybe four types of comfrey?

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posted 6 months ago

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The first picture is earliest to bloom and my favorite color.
It's fairly low growing with smaller narrower leaves than the other...I think it was called Russian comfrey by the person who gave it to me but I've never been sure..

The second photo is some from seed, 'symphytum officinale' bought from Richters.
It I am certain of except that I already had a similar growing one with similar colored flowers that I think is intermingling in some planting areas...not pollinating since that one is sterile even though the common has viable seed.
Will add photos as they flower.

The third photo is a clumping type and It will have pinkish flowers.
I shared it years ago at a plant swap and lost mine when we moved so have been able to get some plants from our son who I shared with originally. I've never known it's name?

I realize flowers are probably key to ID...should be more blooming soon as they are budding up.

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Judith Browning

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posted 6 months ago

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This is comfrey type #4 of my photos.

This is the one I've had the longest (40yrs+) but has similar growth and flower color to #2.
It is in a spot where I would not have put the viable seed one....I think.

any guesses as to varieties?

It probably doesn't matter all that much except I thought I might try to sell some and then I would need to be more certain whats what.

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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posted 6 months ago

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common comfrey #2 flowering.
from seed, 'symphytum officinale'

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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posted 6 months ago

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#2, #1, #4.

2 is a paler version of 4.

IMG_20260417_160157_009-2.jpg

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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posted 6 months ago

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adding this link to read later https://permies.com/t/15627/Comfrey-Varieties

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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posted 4 months ago

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#3 (the clumping type) is blooming now....pale pink flowers.

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Jackson Bradley

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posted 4 months ago

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Judith Browning wrote:The first picture is earliest to bloom and my favorite color.
It's fairly low growing with smaller narrower leaves than the other...I think it was called Russian comfrey by the person who gave it to me but I've never been sure..

From the description and pictures of this one, I imagine it is SYMPHYTUM HIDCOTE BLUE COMFREY. I have some and it is the lowest growing compared to my true comfrey and bocking 14.

I really enjoy any plant with blue flowers. There are some good pictures of the blue comfrey here: https://www.nantahala-farm.com/comfrey-wild-native-s.shtml

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Judith Browning

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posted 4 months ago

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thank you Jackson!
I never knew anything about that variety.

and yes! blue flowers are great....I always called these an 'electric blue'...and it's the earliest to bloom.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Jackson Bradley

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posted 4 months ago

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Judith Browning wrote:thank you Jackson!
I never knew anything about that variety.

and yes! blue flowers are great....I always called these an 'electric blue'...and it's the earliest to bloom.

Lithodora is a very nice blue flowered ground cover. It seems to make the most flowers when it is shaded by other plants.

It was at the garden center of the big blue store and the blue flowers got me. It sounds like you may like it.

"Condemnation by category is the lowest form of hatred for it is cold hearted and abstract, lacking the heat and even the courage of a personal hatred." -Wendell Berry

Hugo Morvan

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posted 4 months ago

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Nobody ever seems to be sure what they have. Mine were given to me by a friend. He found them by the side of the road. When i asked which one it was he said 'of course it's a Bocking". Not saying that it's not worth to identify them, but if i would have believed him everybody i gave to would have believed they bought a Bocking and whatever number i made up. Somebody would have started a nursery and sold half France.
Not very helpful i knoiw. But i would say the most important is to sell a few plants. And if you sell the non seeding type no harm's done is it? And if people want to have 5 or 14 because they need 21% proteine in stead of 19 to feed their goat, advice them to not buy online, because there it's one big bull shit circus. Hopefully somebody comes along and identifies them for you. I wouldn't know how to.

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Judith Browning

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posted 4 months ago

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thank you for the laugh Hugo😊

I think you'r right where only the seeded one would be a mistake to sell.

I never understood the 'Bockings' and especially the numbers...all hybrids bred by 'somebody'?

If I manage to get it together to try sell some I might just leave them at numbered types 1, 2, 3 or 4 as pictured here....

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Jackson Bradley

pollinator

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posted 4 months ago

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May go without saying......

I am not sure how you can tell the difference between bocking 14 and 4 and different types of virile comfrey. There are some threads on here but, at times, my bocking 14 looks like bocking 4 from what I have read and seen in the pics. It was sold to me as backing 14 so I just go with that. https://permies.com/t/175487/determine-Bocking-Bocking-Comfrey

I do not think the flower color, except the blue flowers, tell you too much. I have pink and purple flowers from the same plant/seeds.

I think you can figure out if you have some type of bocking and sterile verses other types that are virile. My bocking 14 flowers, drops the flowers and never closes to form seeds. The true comfrey closes and grows in size and forms seeds.

It could be safe to say that you could just label them as sterile or virile and go that route depending on what you observe with the seed pods. Or self seeding and non self seeding to be easier to understand.

Developed-true.jpg

Developing-true-opened.jpg

Developing-true.jpg

Pink-True.jpg

Purple-True.jpg

Small-open-undeveloped-bocking-14.jpg

"Condemnation by category is the lowest form of hatred for it is cold hearted and abstract, lacking the heat and even the courage of a personal hatred." -Wendell Berry

Judith Browning

Posts: 10885

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

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posted 4 months ago

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good information Jackson!
thanks for the link.
I need to spend some time studying leaves and stems.
...and I'm pretty sure I've got seed set now so maybe can differentiate those from the sterile ones that look exactly the same.

The one with a clumping growth habit has always been pale pink though...will look at it more closely.

The others I consider a sprawling growth habit..there's probably another more appropriate term?

..

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

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