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| Funny the things you experience while doing the spring weeding. I just decided to rip out the hardy prickly pear in one of my beds. It is spiny, vicious and has yet to bloom after several years. I carefully dig it out wearing gloves while sparing its neighbor, the spineless prickly pear (which does flower). Then I decide to take off the glove on my left hand to weed among the spineless prickly pear pads, little realizing that its now defunct neighbor has shed a bunch of sharp little glochid hairs onto it, with the result that I now have a hand containing lots of glochids embedded in an existing case of poison ivy, which does not feel good. Do not grow spiny prickly pears with glochids, unless you enjoy pain. For about the last six years, I've had (in the same bed) a dwarf variegated bamboo, which appeared to be gamely hanging on while not doing much of anything. This spring I noticed there seemed to be two adjacent clumps where I only remembered one before. I decided this might be a bad sign and went to dig them up. It turns out that sometime during this past year (including the worst winter in the last decade), the bamboo was busy sending out whipcord-strong underground stems and spreading plantlets up to 15 feet away. I have pulled most of them, but inevitably I am in for a battle for years to come to eradicate this thing. Plant your bamboo in pots, even if they look frail and you're assured they're non-runners. You'll be glad you did. And don't get me started on Lysimachia-lawn. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by linlily z5/6PA (jakey915@comcast.net) on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 14:15
| Croscomia - unless you have a very large space for them to run over. When we moved here, there were a few plants of a tall, dark orange red variety that looked like Lucifer. A year or two later, they were everywhere. I dug, gave away, and am still finding a few that must have come from tiny bulblets that I didn't get, after 7 years. Two years ago, I decided to try a dwarf variety. I received a half dozen small Emily Mckenzie in a trade and planted them. I love the color and the size of these. But, it looks like I will be digging again to keep them in check. It will be easier than with the taller variety, I think. |
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| Hi In my area almost everything is invasive to some degree . Would be much easier to list those that are not.lol How about most invasive ?? Trandescantia, Brittonia, ficus, Phillipine violet. Cape honyesuckle several thunbergera. tropical morning glory. Many many more but can be controlled lol gary |
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- Posted by perennialfan273 zone 5 (My Page) on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 18:15
| Garlic mustard |
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- Posted by TexasRanger10 7 (My Page) on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 18:27
| Don't allow or intentionally plant this plant-borg in your yard. Passiflora incarnata, aka Maypop, aka Passion Flower Vine. One single plant can spread a hundred feet, it sends up suckers everywhere. This subject came up recently so I'm sending out the warning. Don't let those "wonderful" unusual flowers make a sucker out of you.....you will be suckered. Years ago I had a whole backyard lawn full of PFV. Very big mistake, one of my worst ever. And don't let the "be kind to butterflies" people suck you in. Caterpillars eat other nicer plants too so unless you are a died in the wool, fanatic B.Flies & caterpillar habitat junkie, be very very wary. |
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a N CT (My Page) on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 19:27
| Adenophora pereskiifolia (a.k.a., ladybells) - I stupidly bought seeds via an online nursery, then, more stupidly, winter sowed them which equates to really, really healthy roots & plants. Planted them out (additional stupidity quadrupled) and loved their pretty blue bell-shaped flowers in Y2. Noticed they'd multiplied in Y3 but it wasn't until Y4 they'd completely ignored the corrugated cardboard I'd laid around them under the 3-4 inches of bark mulch I spread to retard self-seeding. Now I guess I have to look forward to more regret after planting crocosmia. Sigh... I haven't seen any volunteers yet, however, so maybe my cardboard-under-mulch approach stopped that nightmare in its tracks. While I don't consider myself "a died in the wool, fanatic B.Flies & caterpillar habitat junkie I do garden with pollinators in mind. I try to find out as much as I can before digging a planting hole. I wouldn't plant bamboo even in pots. The invasive running bamboo found its way into the garden at my previous address and nothing short of a nuclear device or alien invasion could have eradicated it. |
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- Posted by TexasRanger10 7 (My Page) on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 19:43
| gardenweed, it seems like, from what I can see anyway, people who strive to attract pollinators come in two distinct groups. The devoted (fanatic) group puts the butterflies & caterpillars as the #1 or main interest, never mind what type of plants, cages, trouble in collecting eggs etc, wintering over chyrsalises etc etc is involved. There is nothing they won't provide or do in the way of "growing butterflies". The plants don't seem to be the main interest. I should have said "devoted" rather than "fanatic". woops. Anyway from what I can tell, they are mainly growing butterflies. The lesserly fanatic group considers the plants as the main interest but keeps the pollinators always in mind, however the way the garden looks does factor in. In other words, they are more into growing plants than growing butterflies although the butterflies etc are more than welcome & encouraged. |
This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 20:12
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a N CT (My Page) on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 22:37
| I don't have many "garden regrets" but am conscious of the few that I planted. I did what homework seemed appropriate prior to growing/planting things according to what I loosely consider my garden design & goal. Low-maintenance, long-lived perennial plants were my original primary goal. Seasonal interest came next--hoping to have something blooming from April through October was secondary. Sustaining pollinators was a collateral goal I hoped to integrate into my haphazard design. There are invasive (a.k.a., enthusiastic) species that invade my garden beds each year, among them Dame's rocket, which is likely carried in on the wind or else deposited by birds flying over. I find them marginally annoying but leave them where they grow to sustain migratory birds & other critters who rely on them for sustenance. Would I consciously plant them? Chances are slim to none. Do I experience joy that they appear in my garden beds. Take a wild guess. Am I committed to eradicating them in my garden? Begs the question: why? |
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- Posted by Gyr_Falcon Sunset 23 USDA 9 (My Page) on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 1:09
| I just don't remember any horror stories this season beyond the financial for one experimental miss. Several seasons ago I met the new nursery offering, Cousin Itt. (Acacia cognata Cousin Itt ['Mini Cog'] to be more precise. Cute as the dickens in a two gal., even at $30 each. My husband liked them, too. I bought three the first season, then four more last year. One of my top plant info sources stated that they would have "...tight growth to 2 to 3 feet tall by 4 to 6 feet wide." Well... Some grew better than others, but they all started growing in a more open pattern to the point of looking scraggly. Not completely unattractive, really, but not as advertised at all. I wonder if the nurseries Embark/growth regulated them when they were young. Or maybe that is just the nature of that plant. They hadn't been available long enough here to know. I finally came to the conclusion that the garden would look better without the Cousin Itts than with them. I do not have a large yard--every inch is precious space. So I evicted them all and planted alstroemeria, gaura and a few other perennials. I don't normally invest that much into new nursery offerings. And there have been more than a few wonderful plants we discovered. But I sure wish I had some of that Cousin Itt investment money back to purchase more of the ones that did impress. |
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- Posted by melissa_thefarm NItaly (My Page) on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 1:35
| Usually I post over in the old rose forum, but this thread is too good to miss. One gardener's invasive plant is another's good doer; so much depends on growing conditions. I suspect my not watering my plants, with our dry summers, helps keep undue vigor in check. One of my very few problem plants is periwinkle (Vinca). Never let anybody tell you a particular form is not invasive. They're all invasive, no matter how variegated. And they're so pretty! which makes it harder to eradicate them. Really I need to harden my heart and pull them all out and plant a couple of pots. Comfrey is another villain (which I was also promised was a non-invasive variety--ha) but it has a lot of poor ground to battle to conquer so usually it's not much of a problem. I also planted two kinds of pachysandra, another famously invasive plant. I'm hoping dry summers will help keep this in check. |
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- Posted by woodyswife z5 OH (My Page) on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 9:06
| Bishops Weed!! I'm also regretting that I planted Bellflower Campanula Glomerta Superba. These are plants that once you have them good chance you'll have them for life! |
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| After posting this thread I finished digging out the rest of the visible dwarf variegated bamboo. It turns out that the mother plant was sitting in a gallon pot all this time, but obviously had managed to escape. Never again. I hear horsetails are very attractive... |
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| Posts like these can often simultaneously be a source of amusement and information for me. My sis had some Aegopodium podagraria (Bishops weed) at her house when she moved in. I have to say "had" because it managed to die under her "tender" care. LOL She rather liked the plant too. I've never had any issue with Crocosmia Lucifer trying to spread. Quite to the contrary, I've tried up at my folks' place to get it to spread -- to no avail. My parents have a nice bed of deep green Vinca (periwinkle) along the garage though every so often they have needed to add some new plantings of it to that bed because some spots will occasionally die off. It has never been a problem -- and that bed has been in place for over 20yrs. Now I will say that the bed is retrained as it is backed by the garage and bordered by the walkway. However that doesn't account for the fact that it is also planted in a couple unrestrained areas along the house where grass does not do well and it hasn't spread there either. Then there is my sis who had a fair amount of one of the variegated types along her house when she moved in. We relocated it and most of it has died out completely with the rest just kind of hanging on by a thread. Plants to avoid: Campsis radicans (trumpet vine) -- Yes, yes it attracts hummingbirds. But the obnoxious thing also seeds profusely and can send underground runners out for great distances to pop up far from the main plant. It can and will smother other plants around it. And since the seeds can be dispersed by winds, it can easily escape into the wild and create havoc with ecosystems. Honeysuckle -- Don't know what species/variety my sis had but it was a major aphid magnet. The underside of the leaves would be literally covered with them and always a large supply of ants which were farming them. |
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| "I hear horsetails are very attractive..." Oh yes, by all means Eric plant horsetails! Don't just plant a few though, they'll look all odd and lonely. Plant lots! In a couple of years, we'll never hear from you again. You'll be too busy trying to abandon your house. Vinca - I've never understood the thing about this stuff being invasive. It took me years to establish a patch. Last year I decided to get rid of it and it was gone in a flash. Kevin |
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- Posted by melissa_thefarm NItaly (My Page) on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 23:55
| All depends on one's conditions. Obviously vinca is very happy in a zone 8 Mediterranean climate. It grows wild in our woods. I won't say how many of Paul's invasive plants I have growing in my garden. Japanese honeysuckle has a great reputation as an invasive plant. I've acquired it a number of times masquerading as various European honeysuckles, which are fragrant too and considerably better adapted to our growing conditions, so that they look good in summer when the rain-loving Japanese honeysuckle is wretched, though not wretched enough to die. I've never found the will to extirpate my established plants of this beast but would be happier without it. |
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| (Melissa, I, too, frequent the rose forums and read your postings!) On our property in south central texas, the scourge is cactus and mesquite and I absolutely cringe when I see mesquite listed on "drought tolerant tree lists". Yes, it's drought tolerant and if it never rained again, it would be the only thing that survived. It's a constant battle with this stuff and both require specialty, licensed chemicals to kill them or specific manual, hard labor techniques to dig them out, which when you're talking about acres and acres, borders on impossible. And they come up EVERYWHERE. I would like to rent a herd of elephants to roam the land and eat them all.......... |
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| Obedient plant. Tartarian aster is also a thug. On the other hand you could plant these in a dedicated bed by themselves, far from anything else, and with a barrier around them, if you had room, I suppose. That goes for that awful orange Japanese lantern plant, (but it is so very pretty). So be warned. |
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| You must have really good soil linlily. My crocosmias have never gone too crazy. Might depend on the variety. In the right setting and climate, many antipodal Irids can become invasive. |
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| Boston Ivy. I didn't plant it, a neighbor did. I've spent 15 years whacking it off at my fence line as it tries to creep in. Lynn T |
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| Even with a campanula trying to take over my back yard, I think the worst thing to put in the ground is any kind of landscape fabric. I hate trying to dig it out again and pull it up while it's riddled with roots and falling apart. Better to go with cardboard or newspapers which will last long enough to smother the weeds, yet not leave the next gardener cursing you. |
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| Ah thought of a couple more to mention. Horseradish -- if you're going to plant some, do it in a container to confine it. It can be challenging to wipe out once established. How about mints? Members of this family can be quite ... vigorous. I've heard of people having issues keeping mints restrained. My folks used to have a small patch of catmint planted in a plastic wash tub in the backyard because one of their cats loved to "frolic" in it. (Incredibly humorous sight!) Years later after the cat had passed away and so had that tub, there was a small patch that grew in one area by their AC unit not far from where the tub used to sit. Not a big deal as if it ever tried to escape into the lawn my dad would simply mow it down. But what I found interesting was when I discovered some growing in their front yard in a raised flowerbed. I know my folks had never planted any there. Fortunately, I was able to pull it out before it could get truly established. |
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- Posted by TexasRanger10 7 (My Page) on Sat, Apr 26, 14 at 22:46
| There's some exceptions to yuccas. Yucca rostrata is a nice friendly one, not sharp. Monrovia named the one they sell 'Sapphire Skies', a perfect circle of thin, flexible, very blue leaves. Its also one of the most hardy-- to zone 5b as long as it gets good drainage. Another friendly one is twist leaf yucca, I have this too, its a native Texas one. You can pet him. There's yuccas, then there's YUCCAS. Mostly I've avoided them but these two can stay. |
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- Posted by adellabedella 9 (My Page) on Sat, Apr 26, 14 at 23:26
| My builder planted lemon bulbine in my flowerbeds last year. I pulled it out because it was not attractive and looked quite weedy. I've hundreds of baby plants coming up. I keep pulling them up, I haven't been able to find any info about this plant being so invasive, but it has been for me. |
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| TR, my views on yucca have nothing to do with the presence or lack of thorns. Rather that: 1) They often look like crap after a winter with leaf damage -- and they do not clean up well. 2) And FAR more importantly, the damn things are an absolute b____ to try to get rid of once established. |
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- Posted by TexasRanger10 7 (My Page) on Sun, Apr 27, 14 at 14:09
| paul, I dug out a couple nightmare yucca clumps that was a horrible job, both leaving a hole big enough to bury a couple people in (preferably those who planted the things in the first place) when we bought this house. I hear you loud & clear. These were ugly, got infested with bugs every year & those roots are huge. I just wanted to highlight a couple of exceptions to the Never Plant Yucca rule, which I used to tell anyone who would listen. We are warmer here which makes a difference I imagine but these two types are beautiful blue & sculptural in winter. My main message was: There's yuccas then there's YUCCAS. Oh and hey, you can always trim em up to look like giant pineapples. Makes em dern neat n' tidy. I especially like the ones that have a wee little stiff mop of spiked hair on top of a tall nekked stem. They'd make good ads for Got-2-B-Glued hair products. Your hair can look just like this........... |
This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Sun, Apr 27, 14 at 19:44
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- Posted by prairiemoon2 zone 6a/MA (My Page) on Sun, Apr 27, 14 at 16:43
| I knew about Bamboo and it is one of those plants that is very scary. Wow Eric, in a pot and still managed to travel. I’ve heard lots of horror stories over the years. Did not know about Crocosmia, or Passiflora. I almost planted both of those once. Adenophora, well…either that or the cousin Campanula is the only one on my property that I’ve been unable to get control of yet. I guess I’m one of the few people who don’t have a problem with vinca. Mine is surrounded by the street, the driveway a fence and a rock edging and stays where I need it with just a little trimming on the rock edge side. I saw a photo of an English estate, I believe, that had a trained trumpet vine worked into the landscape and the trunks of the vine were like tree trunks. Sorry I couldn’t find a photo of it to post. We enjoy Honeysuckle in our garden, and so far are pruning it quite a bit in the spring to keep it on the fence it’s climbing. I don’t see aphids for long because the ladybugs show up and then they’re gone. I really appreciate knowing which plants are causing problems for other gardeners. I’d like to avoid as many as possible. [g] |
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| One gardener's problem child is another gardener's darling, lol! The only thing I really regret planting so far is forget-me-nots, Myosotis sylvatica. For me, they never quite turned into that gorgeous spring carpet of blue that I had dreamed of. Instead, I got a horrifically weedy, rangy, reseeding eyesore of a mess that chokes out any desirable plant in its path. The seedlings just never seem to end and emerge in thick carpets as soon as I can weed them out. I now have to go through my entire garden multiple times each season specifically to weed out these pests and somehow a few manage to escape my watchful eye and grow to maturity. Right now, they are germinating by the millions!!! That is no exaggeration!! I have dealt with and almost eradicated other pests like garlic mustard and stars of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum) and they are actually pleasant to deal with in comparison. Verbena bonariensis reseeds like mad but is also much easier to remove than those dreaded forget-me-nots!!! A plant that I love but regret planting where I did are the giant globe alliums like 'Globemaster' and especially 'Ambassador'. In my soil, they have been doing extremely well and multiplying like rabbits. Which means that the clumps of huge, strapping leaves are now so large that they are smothering many other desirable plants that would be dead by the time the allium foliage dies back in June. 'Ambassador' is a most gorgeous, tall cultivar with the most exquisite deep purple globes, but it's foliage is the largest and most smothering of all. Because of this, I have been forced to remove a lot of them as they emerge this spring. Either that, or lose most of my desirable geraniums, penstemons and other perennials. Sigh. |
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| Hmm, don't recall what variety of globe allium I plant years ago up at my folks' place, but have never had that issue. The allium foliage always dies off long before it causes an issue. |
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- Posted by ravensfan52 6 (My Page) on Tue, Apr 29, 14 at 13:02
| Anemone Robustissima has spread all throughout my perennial bed and gravel paths. The first year it looked so grand, clear pink flowers swaying in the breeze. Now I am constantly trying to pull it out, but it conveniently breaks off at the root and re-grows. I have a few of the others people have mentioned but they have not gone crazy yet. YET. I am trying to get crocosmia to put on a show, but the place it is in gets dry and hot, and I don't baby it. The other one I have is Major Wheeler Honeysuckle and some other red/orange honeysuckle that was popular last year - the name escapes me now. Both were vigorous growers but I just kept pruning them to the space I have allotted for them. They are playing nicely (for now) with a purple clematis and a deep pink John Cabot rose, all trained on the fence that is a backdrop to a driveway bed/hellstrip. The things I do for those cute hummingbirds!! |
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