I watch Big Love. I know all about sister wives.

Creative license is very funny I suddenly pictured our beautiful chic editor as one of three women in frumpy dresses pulling weeds ... Seriously if a weed leeps its flowers for a long time like Queen Anns Lace I keep it in the garden. Queen Anns Lace is actually hard to grow I dug up several plants before I got one to take in my yard.

I've always been very fond of those pale blue flowers you see growing by the side of the road. I think it's called chicory. I've never seen it take root in a garden though. Oh, and bindweed is actually quite pretty, once you get past the fact that it wants to overtake and strangle every plant in sight.

One thing to keep in mind about invasive species...they will spread from your garden to other areas, choke out native plants, and negatively impact the native fauna. Birds, especially, depend on native plants for nesting.

I don't mind dandelions, and those little violet flowers that grow in the grass.

I also like the show, "Weeds."

I"m waiting for the comment we're all thinking about...

I love Johnny Jump-Ups.

A weed is just a plant that's growing where you don't want it. My friends had extremely spiny cactuses in their yard that would have been weeds in mine. However, they'd deliberately planted them under their bedroom windows for security and privacy, so they weren't weeds in that yard.

To me it's a "flower of Scotland".

I love Queen Ann's Lace, but my partner has declared war on it - so it is nowhere to be found in our garden.

That said, I've surrendered to allow Creeping Charlie do its utmost creeping since it is next to impossible to control! Plus I once saw it being sold at a greenhouse as a ground cover - so it may not be the weed I think it is!

Here, if it is on the state's noxious weed list, you are required by law to "cut, destroy, or eradicate" it.

The weeds on the list are mostly harmful to livestock, such as Yellow Starthistle, which is toxic to horses.

Awww, Queen Anne's lace... I remember when I was little I'd cut it and put it in a vase with food coloring so the flowers would turn different colors. A lot of it grew near the field where my dad used to play softball, so I'd come home from each game with a fresh bunch to dye. :-)

Vines are so "greedy" that I won't plant any, although some are very pretty. When I arrived, they'd overgrown the back garden so that it looked abandoned and creepy. It took over a year of near-daily inspection and hand weeding to subdue them. I routinely remove "volunteers" on sight for the sake of the other plants in my garden. Vines can only be controlled at best, never vanquished, and are among the most difficult weeds I have.

Thistle grows wild here in Minnesota, and @avimom? The birds here depend on it. Especially finches.

I've been nursing this dream of someday having a bird and butterfly garden in my yard, full of native plants and thistle. It really is gorgeous when you get a stand of it in bloom!

I'm currently fighting a losing battle against black swallow wort, so any former pity I had for weeds is gone.

Haha! Okay, I admit I definitely misused the "editorial we" in this post.

I'm with RoseCampion--I love chicory! I wish it would volunteer in my garden, but so far, no luck...

A Thistle is not a weed. It is a flowering plant and the National Flower of Scotland.

Please learn what is native and what's invasive/introduced in your area. Wildlife depend on native species, which can be killed by invasives. Queen Anne's Lace is hated by native plant advocates, along with many other favorites like baby's breath, sweet woodruff, myrtle, ajuga… the list goes on. Here's a thorough resource for info on any American plant species, native or cultivated.
USDA Plants Database

I carefully transplanted a wild thistle to my flower garden, next to a globe thistle. I have wild daisies, and fully intend to find some Queen Anne's lace to bring to the wildflower part of my yard. But I do pull purple loosestrife.

"Eat the Weeds!" Queen Anne's lace is delicious dipped in batter and fried. Chicory has beautiful blue flowers and the leaves and root are edible. Young dandelion leaves are an excellent bitter salad green. Even though I have a love for certain "weeds" I am currently battling burdock root in my vacant lot garden. Unfortunately, the wild burdock root that grows in the Midwest is not that good as an edible so I have very little love for it--there is a different variety of burdock that is grown just for the root. That's not to say the invasive burdock here is completely useless, it could be used for tinctures or tea. One of my favorite ornamental weeds is "butter and eggs." It has a delicious sounding name but is not edible.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/2658393175/

Thistles are all well and good until they start sprouting up ALL OVER MY LAWN.....ouch. I have a weedy lawn, and I'm not uptight about it....but thistles are painful. One even got tall enough to almost flower along the fence...I'm sure it would have been pretty....but then the seeds would have spread and made things even worse. It had to go, along with the rest of its little minions.

oh! and just this very morning while on the way to work I was picking, crushing and smelling mugwort growing through a fence. It is an aromatic and bitter weed with silver undersides. Mugwort was used as a bittering agent for beer before hops. (I learned this from an expert forager, Nance Klehm).

I love wildflowers, I just planted two beds of flowers meant to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Plus we are in the process of killing our sod lawn to replace it with clover. The more wildlife that I can attract and the less water I have to use in my garden the better. I can't wait for everything to grow in and to be able to sit and enjoy a little wild oasis in the East Bay (SF).

I purchased Echinops to plant in my mailbox garden. They were purchased on-line and I didn't research too much about them. When they arrived the instructions indicated they are in the thistle family. My husband is going to be mad when they bloom. They do look pretty with the purple globe like flowers.

lovelovelove Queen Anne's Lace. It was a huge part of my wedding. It's definitely a welcome presence in my garden.

I love dandelions. But I have no garden, just pots on a balcony :)

lol@ Regina. I was waiting for you to catch that!

No worries, hygebeorht -- I just pulled a dandelion from the strawberry pot on my balcony! They ae happy to grow anywhere! (And were imported to the States by colonials for a garden plant: dandelion wine, probably! And the greens, of course.)

Natives are great for gardens and wildlife, though - -and many of those are called weeds. Milkweed is a favorite for monarch butterflies, for instance. Not all make for tidy gardens...

The term 'weed' is very subjective, but 'native' and 'invasive' are much more well defined.

Native plants, like certain species of thistles (but not all!), have evolved in concert with other species in their particular ecosystem, both plants and animals.

Introduced species, including most of the plants sold in commercial nurseries, were brought in from other ecosystems, including ecosystems on the same continent, but their natural predators were not brought with them. Introduced species can become 'naturalized' if they exist in an ecosystem long enough, and will grow in the wild and seem 'native'.

Invasive species, including some species of thistles and a number of plants sold in commercial nurseries, reproduce rapidly enough and have no natural predators that they overrun the ecosystems they are introduced into, even if they are not invasive in their original ecosystems.

Additionally, the list of plants considered 'native' and 'invasive' varies regionally, so what is 'native' in New England could be invasive in the Midwest, and even more so between continents. So before you leave or plant a 'weed' in your garden, make sure you know for sure that it is not invasive in your region.

I have a ton of Queen Anne's lace in my garden. It's just taken over. UGH! I also have plenty of milkweed, which I dig. I want lots of monarchs fluttering about my garden. Although I do need to expand my mound of wildflowers. Looks nice and less maintenance.

Steph82, Queen Anne's Lace is a favorite of mine too. I dyed the flowers when I was a kid and liked that the roots were edible...not tasty but still pretty cool.

I like milkweed. I'm fascinated with the pods and the soft silky fibers inside. Unfortunately it's hard to control where it goes once it gets in a garden. I encouraged some to grow in a flower bed hoping to attract butterflies...my grandmother was horrified to see it growing there.

Dandelions rule!

I love thistle and violets and dandelions and daisy weed. I have spent the last ten years removing the grass from the front yard so it is now almost completely covered in violets. it was so lovely in April! There's a bit of thistle but one of neighbors usually comes by and cuts it right before it blooms every year.

I do like a plant that grows tall and has yellow tips (not sure of the name). And I leave any plant that attracts bees or butterflies.

It's good to read from so many people who can appreciate something that's not a sod lawn.

Is it weird that I would replant those as wildflowers?