oh crikey... just get rid of them ...

sooo.. if i got this right.. you admit.. you should have never taken them in the first place .... good for you ... how many years has it been....

but you are still in denial about the proper course of treatment for them... which is death ... ESPECIALLY THE RADICALLY INVASIVE LOOSESTRIFES ....

SO WHAT??? i am going to have to wait a few more years.. for your next post .. about how you should have... har har.. done the right thing now.. lol

what a hoot... just kill them all.. with malice and aforethought.... be done with them...

you know.. in your darkest of hearts... that is the right thing to do .. you are just fishing for someone to come along and tell you you dont have to ....

ken

ps: KILL all invasives in your collection... now!!! .. do not trade them on to others .... like they did to you ....

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This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 3:41

the compost bin.

Well, I'm not talking about invasive purple loosestrife, Ken. The yellow flowered ones that I have march forward into the plants in front of them, so I'm pulling them out yearly which is a pain. The list I posted are more bully plants to their most immediate neighbors. After 7 years they haven't expanded to take over additional territory too. I've grown many types of plants in my borders and quite a few petered out after a few years or couldn't take winter soil conditions. So, it's the hardiest that remain, some of which happen to be these bully growers.

It's interesting to see that all but one response is to do away with any of these type of roamers. My immediate thoughts usually trend towards simply not having planted something in the right kind of space rather than to getting rid of it. But I have several acres surrounding my house to trial things so I guess I figured that I might have a choice since I haven't run out of space to plant and could put the prettier bullies elsewhere at property edges. The problem children are growing in an area that I would like to redo to make maintenance easier.

It does make me look more closely at plants deemed to be "vigorous growers" for anything going into the main borders now.

Generally in places that offer conditions pretty different than what they prefer :-) IME, plants that spread rampantly in good soil, plenty of sun and water typically spread far less aggressively if planted in dry shade - gooseneck loosestrife for one, Euphorbia robbiae for another. Conversely, vinca planted in much sun here struggles to survive, let alone spreads much. Ditto goutweed.

I tend not to recommend to get rid of anything unless it is just driving you crazy - just relocate it :-) I happen to be very fond of both the aforementioned plants (euphorbia and lysimachia) and just chose to find a more restrictive environment for them where they stay under control.

There are some plants that just will not consider being controlled and those I will remove - plume poppy, petasites, sunchoke, yellow alstroemeria and a few others I can name. But it can certainly differ from garden to garden and plant to plant. And, if you've got the room, why not let 'em go :-)

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This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 3:42

Well, I think you have to take a few things into consideration if you want to grow a particular thuggish plant. I'm dealing with that very issue in regards to Campanula takesimana. Despite the fact it spreads like wildfire, I still like it, so the key for me was to find someplace it could be all by itself.

Chances are you have some area of your garden with less than ideal conditions. For me that area is the West facing side of my house. It gets blazing hot in the summer, yet it's partially shaded and to top it off there's a lot of competition from tree roots, so the area is always dry.

Full sun plants don't do well because of the shade.
Most shade plants don't do well because it's so hot and dry. Over the years I've added tons of compost and that only seemed to make the tree roots grow faster and closer to the surface. Also because I'm becoming more and more concerned about my water use, I just can't justify all the watering I need to do to keep most plants happy.

That's where I banished this Campanula:

{{gwi:253082}}

Now I would never recommend growing this plant amongst other perennials. It would simply intertwine itself with everything else because of the aggressive underground runners. However, when it's grown by itself that really doesn't matter that much. Also the runners grow right below the surface of the soil, so they're easy to remove if you don't have to be concerned with other plants growing amongst them.

I started out with 3 seedlings and now this plant occupies around an 8 foot section of this garden. That's fine with me. I don't want to attempt to grow anything else here anyway. Most likely I'll remove the whole mass of plants and runners next spring and start over just to control it a bit, but I know it will be an easy job because I don't have to worry about disturbing any other plants.

Kevin

Kevin, that's a great idea as it is a very pretty plant.

Maybe I should try something like that in my back yard which has a Norway and two silver maples. Currently I don't even try to grow anything back there because of the competetion from the roots of the maples and the fact that its very dry shade.

Suji

My lack of full sun tends to prevent some of the aggressives from taking over. I'm with Kevin, I plant my most aggressive (obedient plant) in its own bed and shovel prune the bed in the spring to keep it in bounds. I've been doing the same thing with the lemon balm plus giving it a haircut when it starts to bloom. Every time I go to rip it out entirely, the fragrance gets me to leave a core of it.

I am trying an experiment this year. I wanted a tiger eye sumac for the color and shape of the leaves. But I have read about it being an aggressive spreader. So I planted it in a big black pot in the ground, with hopes that this will keep the spreading to a minimum.

I also make sure that any aggressives I keep are easy to pull up. I have to pull up the volunteer oaks, tulip poplars and maples anyway, so what's a bit more weeding if I like the flowers or smell.

KimKa
(who could be the source of some of your aggressives)

I tried planting a mint in a pot in the ground, but the roots got out and got going from the bottom of the pot. As soon as I noticed it, I got it all out of there. I haven't seen it back since then. It was a small amount and I dug down deep to get all the roots I could then covered it with thick cardboard and mulch. Now I only grow mint in a clay pot on the patio.

We put edging around some of the aggressive plants we want to keep. Depending on the depth of roots, you can go from 6" to 12" high. We did this in other gardens where it kept mint within a border. We're waiting to see how well it constrains the trumpet vine and oenothera. Growing conditions in the desert southwest are tough which probably stops some thugs from colonizing the whole yard.

Cheryl

Suijawn, you're lucky to have several acres to work with. You can relocate some of the plants that aren't very good neighbors and put them in the background. We live on about half an acre, so I have to exercise "tough love' with my plants. What I no longer want becomes compost. Or--- as I have done with some things --- pot them up and give them away or donate them to organizations that need plants. I also do a town garden down by the beach and put many of my aggressives, like Russian Sage, down there where their tenacious attitude is a plus.

Very nice solution, Kevin! In my opinion, that the cluster of Campanula takesimana you have looks so good because it doesn't compete, visually, with any other plants--- the pale bells really look significant above the green foliage.

GreatPlains1, part of your response spoke to me--- also made me laugh! One of the problems about having such a small yard like ours is that your neighbors' yards are very close. In our case our neighbors' yards are dumpy weed farms. So I also like to plant taller things near the border to kind of block the view.

Jadeite, hmmmm--- Oenothera. I planted those several years ago and it's now everywhere. That's also a plant I put down at the beach garden. Along with Lysmachia, it's a "creeper" that I plant near the fence next to one neighbor's weedy yard. I figured--- he gave me his gifts--- I'll give him mine. It does bring me pleasure to see it creeping into his yard, though I'm sure he doesn't notice at all.

Right place, right plant. For me, there's a difference between aggressive seeders, which I don't like since my schedule doesn't always allow for daily or even weekly deadheading, and aggressive runners. I get rid of aggressive seeders. Aggressive runners have a spot in some gardens as ground covers. For instance, my in-laws have variegated goutweed (Aegopodium) on a steep slope that they can't mow. It is contained by a paved drive and edging, and the areas along the edging are mowed lawn. Similarly, I've got orange ditch lilies and Centaurea dealbata on a steep slope bordered by the house foundation and edging bordered by mown field. Neither has spread beyond their limits in the years they have been in their spots, and they solve the problem of what to do with areas that can't realistically be in lawn and are too steep to be maintained as regularly as a more traditional border has to be. I am not sure that I would have any of these plants in a small garden, and I certainly wouldn't put any of them in a border with other plants, but here they solve a maintenance issue and are enjoyed by butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and other pollinators.

I agree with those whose strong advice is don't use them in mixed perennial borders.

However, walls and concrete or (deep) gravel paths can stop them dead.

Planting next to other thuggy plants and also poor growing conditions help.

In my experience runners are much worse, in mixed perennial borders, than seeders. Seedlings tend to get shaded out by taller plants and deadheading, to extent bloom time and enhance flower attractiveness, is a big help.

It's the runners that scare me. I have a small garden and not a lot of places to put a thug. The only two plants that are considered aggressive are vinca and lamium. That's about it. The lamium is in a 4ft wide alley between my house and the garage and has stayed put. The vinca is under my front Maple that is bordered by the street on one side, the driveway on another, a fence line on the other and the fourth side is a rock edging that has about 15ft of mulch on the other side of the rocks. I haven't had any trouble with it going anywhere.