Weeds often get a bad name, and rightfully so. However, when properly managed, many of these weeds boast striking flowers and ornamental foliage that can enhance your indoor and outdoor spaces.
Here is a list of 15 weeds with stunning blooms that can truly enhance the charm of your garden or indoor space. Since they are still weeds, we’ve also included the best removal methods if they spread beyond your aesthetic goals.
1. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
- Common Name: Common dandelion
- Family: Asteraceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Dandelions have deeply toothed, lance-shaped leaves that form a low rosette. But it’s their bright yellow flowers that form a stunning view of any landscape. Also, the blooms turn into white puffball seed heads that we popularly use to blow when we make wishes!
Make sure not to allow weeds that look like dandelions to grow on your landscape as they may bring eradication challenges.
It is native to:
- Europe
- Asia
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: Digging and flaming are effective for small areas.
- Chemical control: Apply postemergence herbicides like dicamba, glyphosate, triclopyr, and MCPA.
2. Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)
- Common Name: Red Clover, Peavine Clover, Cow Grass
- Family: Fabaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Biennial or Perennial
The red clover weed has dark green trifoliate leaves with a pale chevron. It also has rounded pink-purple attractive flower heads that are dense and sweet-smelling.
Allow the blooms to grow on lawn borders, among your fruit trees, and pollinator gardens, and enjoy the view of beautiful bees and butterflies.
It is native to:
- Asia
- North Africa
- Europe
Removal Methods
- Cultural control: Maintain a healthy lawn by regular watering, mowing, and fertilizing to discourage further weed growth.
- Chemical control: Apply herbicides containing dicamba, quinclorac, fluroxypyr, and clopyralid.
- Integrated management: Combine tillage and herbicide treatment for complete removal of red clover.
3. Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota)
- Common Name: Wild Carrot, Bird’s Nest
- Family: Apiaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Biennial
The 2-4 ft tall Queen Anne’s Lace can be a good choice if you’re looking for an imposing yet beautiful plant for your home. It has fern-like, lacy leaves resembling those of carrots.
The flat-topped, white umbel flowers appear like delicate lace with a deep purple dot at the center of each bloom. While as a biennial you may have to wait for the flowers in the second year, the spread of this weed on a landscape forms a striking white presence. Additionally, dried flowers still retain their ornamental value.
Keep the plants contained in a specific area and monitor them as this weed can be extremely aggressive.
It is native to:
- Europe
- Asia
- North Africa
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: Digging the plants from the roots is effective for small areas. Ensure to remove and dispose of the entire plant system from the roots.
- Chemical control: Spot spray the plants with glyphosate for complete removal.
4. Oxeye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)
- Common Name: Oxeye Daisy, Marguerite
- Family: Asteraceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
If you would like the beauty that daisies can bring around your home, grow oxeye daisies. The weed has flowers that resemble classic white daisies with bright yellow centers. Its foliage is dark green and glossy, adding to its heartwarming presence.
Allow them to grow around your rock garden or front yard and watch them transform your home in a calm and sophisticated way.
It is native to:
- Europe
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: Digging and mowing are effective in controlling the weeds, especially in small areas.
- Chemical control: Apply herbicides containing dicamba, metsulfuron, picloram, or dicamba + 2,4-D to kill the plants.
5. Creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea)
- Common Name: Ground Ivy, Gill-over-the-ground
- Family: Lamiaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Creeping charlie may not be your typical upright plant, but its sprawling growth of round, scalloped leaves makes a good groundcover. Now imagine a spread of its small purple-blue trumpet-shaped flowers blanketing your yard, it’s a beauty to behold.
It is native to:
- Europe
- Asia
Removal Methods
Chemical control: Apply herbicides containing dicamba, 2,4-D, MCPP, and triclopyr in early fall for effective control. Once cleared, maintain a healthy lawn or yard to discourage new growth.
6. Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris)
- Common Name: Common Self Heal, Heal All, Lance Self Heal
- Family: Lamiaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Self Heal is a low-growing plant with oval leaves that have slightly serrated edges and grow opposite on square stems. The plant has a long history in treating wounds and edibility, but its beauty is often overlooked.
Its attractive flower spikes are purple and tubular with a stacked appearance because of their two-petaled arrangement. The lavender-purple flowers not only make your yard beautiful, but they also attract bumblebees and butterflies, including the Clouded Sulfur butterfly.
The delicate plant loves moist and shady conditions, so ensure to keep them well hydrated to enjoy their presence in your herbal or shaded garden.
It is native to:
- North and Central America
- Asia
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: If the weed grows on turf, you’ll need to lift the affected areas and replace them to effectively remove it.
- Chemical control: A dicamba + 2,4-D treatment offers the best control against self heal when applied at flowering.
7. White Mouth Dayflower (Commelina erecta)
- Common Name: Slender Dayflower
- Family: Commelinaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
The slender dayflower is a subtle weed yet full of personality. It has green lance-shaped leaves that provide a background for its small flowers.
The flowers have two blue petals with a smaller white petal, resembling a mouth, hence the name. White mouth dayflower is known to take its space, spreading its unique blue color across the landscape.
It is native to:
- North and South America
- Africa
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: Dig out the plants from the roots for complete eradication.
- Chemical control: Apply several treatments of sulfentrazone + cloransulam methyl for effective control.
8. Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule)
- Common Name: Henbit
- Family: Lamiaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Annual
Henbit may be a low-growing plant but once its flowers bloom, its beautiful presence is unmistakable. Apart from its interesting greenish-purple stems and deeply lobed leaves, the weed also produces beautiful clusters of small pink-purple tubular flowers.
Since it’s a prolific seed producer, you can expect the weed to take over your landscape, but only for a short while in the winter. So, enjoy the minty aroma while it lasts.
It is native to:
- Asia
- Africa
- Europe
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: Cut down the plants and hand-pull the rest of the remaining fragments.
- Chemical control: Apply postemergence herbicides containing triclopyr, fluroxypyr, dicamba, and 2,4-D.
9. Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)
- Common Name: Evening Primrose
- Family: Onagraceae
- Annual or Perennial: Biennial or perennial
For homeowners searching for some glowing night action, the evening primrose does not disappoint. True to its name, it has large showy yellow four-petaled flowers that open at dusk and glow softly at night.
The plant’s tall stems give the weed its imposing upright posture (sometimes up to 6 feet), ensuring that you don’t miss the lemony aroma and glow.
It is native to:
- North America
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: Dig out the plants (including the entire tap root system) to eradicate them.
- Chemical control: Apply products containing dicamba, triclopyr, fluroxypyr, dichlobenil, MCPA, and sulfentrazone.
10. White Clover (Trifolium repens)
- Common Name: Clover
- Family: Fabaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
You may be growing white clover for forage and for its nitrogen-fixing abilities in your crop field. But have you ever thought of growing it closer to home?
The low-growing weed has a unique trifoliate leaf arrangement, often having a white crescent mark. Its attractive flowerheads have a cream-to-pink hue that sprawls across the landscape.
The weed does not require much maintenance, effectively takes out other weeds, and can hold up to trampling too.
It is native to:
- Central Asia
- Europe
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: Mowing, cutting, and digging out the remaining fragments can provide effective control against the clover.
- Chemical control: Apply a glyphosate or quinclorac herbicide treatment on the weeds when you are ready to remove them. Read our comprehensive article for more white clover removal methods on the lawn.
11. Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)
- Common Name: Creeping Crowfoot, Sitfast
- Family: Ranunculaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Few plants offer a vivid display with so little effort like the creeping buttercup. With its bright yellow flowers, the weed will create a cheerful, cottage-garden feel to your entire landscape.
Apart from brightening your surroundings, it also attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies, adding more charm to your home all through summer.
It is native to:
- Asia
- Europe
- Northwestern Africa
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: Repeated tillage and manual removal of all runners and roots can control the weed.
- Chemical control: Apply herbicide products containing glyphosate, triclopyr + 2,4-D, dicamba + 2,4-D, aminopyralid, MCPA, and metsulfuron.
12. Wild Violet (Viola sororia)
- Common Name: Purple Violet, Sister Violet, Common Blue Violet, Meadow Violet, Hooded Violet,
- Family: Violaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
While most plants are still waking up after winter, wild violets are already blooming, giving you a pop of color when everything else is still brown.
It is a ground-hugging weed that creates a thick, lush carpet of deep green leaves and bright purple flowers with five delicate petals, turning your yard into a mini enchanting forest floor.
You may have to share the lovely violets as bees, butterflies, and even some types of moths also love nesting on the flowers.
It is native to:
- East and Central North America
Removal Methods
- Cultural control: Grow a dense and healthy lawn to outcompete the dense wild violet encroachment. It is the best defense against the weed.
- Chemical control: Apply postemergence herbicides like triclopyr, dicamba, 2,4-D, quinclorac, sulfentrazone, MCPA, or carfentrazone.
13. Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
- Common Name: Common Chicory, Succory, Cornflower, Coffeeweed, Blue Daisy
- Family: Asteraceae
- Annual or Perennial: Biennial or Perennial
Allow chicory to bring some blue daisy-like charm around your home. The bright blooms typically open in sunlight and close by afternoon. However, a few blooms open each day and each bloom opens up for only one day and attracts a variety of bees and butterflies.
It also has dark green rough-textured oblong leaves that grow in basal and stem arrangement similar to dandelions.
It is native to:
- Europe
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: Repeated digging is the most effective method to get rid of all plant fragments that may encourage regrowth.
- Chemical control: Repeat spot treatments using herbicides like dicamba, 2,4-D, and aminopyralid can help remove the weeds.
14. Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis)
- Common Name: Scarlet Pimpernel, Red Chickweed, Shepherd’s sundial, Shepherd’s Weather-glass, Shepherd’s Clock, Poor Man’s Barometer
- Family: Primulaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Annual
Would you like to have plants in your garden that can predict time and weather? The Scarlet pimpernel is the plant for you. Hailing from the primrose family, we can guarantee that this weed will also bring some unique beauty to your home.
The small bright coral-red to orange blooms open up at around 8 am every day and close in the afternoon, hence the name “shepherd’s sundial”. Surprisingly, they also close up during damp or humid weather.
It is native to:
- Europe
Removal Methods
Chemical control: Several herbicides are recommended for red chickweed removal including pendimethalin, fluroxypyr, metribuzin, and DSMA + MCPA.
15. Oxeye Sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides)
- Common Name: Early Sunflower, Smooth Oxeye, False Sunflower
- Family: Asteraceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
The oxeye sunflower has bold, golden-yellow flowers that look like small sunflowers that will bring a vibrant splash of color to your yard. Unlike many perennials that only flower briefly, oxeye sunflowers bloom for months, adding lasting vibrancy to your landscaping, typically, from early summer into fall.
Additionally, the stems are strong, and the flowers last well in bouquets if you like bringing blooms inside.
It is native to:
- Eastern and Central America
Removal Methods
Chemical control: Apply postemergence herbicides like picloram, 2,4-D, metsulfuron, and glyphosate to kill the weeds. Once the weeds are removed, maintain a healthy and dense lawn to discourage new growth.
Lead Editor for Insight Weeds.