just wanted to show another photo, the stem and leaves are very similar to phlox( for descriptions sake) again, any ideas are much appreciated!!

Geese go walking, Gooseneck Loose-strife, Lysimachia clethroides .

I tend to use the first name on my list, it's such a perfect description.
Can be invasive.

This post was edited by plaidbird on Tue, Jul 22, 14 at 19:05

Yep, gooseneck loosestrife. Spreads fast & can be a thug.

but if you have a spot that needs something ... where nothing else wants to grow.. one can enjoy the little darling for going on 20 years now. LOL

thank you! so... stick to buying it off the side of the road, eh? haha! something about the perfect little flowers is just so pretty to me!

i may have to find myself a little piece and plant it at the cabin i was heading to, things cant be tended so well there so perhaps it will go without taking over, tons of room anyways haha! and i can enjoy it while im there!

Well, in theory dry shade slows it down, while sun and/or moisture makes it very happy.

Mine is in dry shade, but the ledge behind and the seating wall in front, the laurel to the left , along with the competition form mature sweet gum tree roots probably have more to do with my successful containment than the shade.

It's in a fumy little place. I have a seating wall by the edge of the front sidewalk, and this one spot where homeless folks will sit in the shade on hot afternoons. Always briefly and they tend to not leave anything behind or cause me any worry. They just look so hot and tired. I think the fact that I keep this and that blooming right there .. looking cared for, is a big part of why they are not leaving a mess behind.

They don't seem to have written the chapter " How to landscape for the homeless" yet.

My ND neighbor has a large patch of it which is, thankfully, bordered on one side by driveway pavement, one side by granite patio & one side by landscape timbers. I'm grateful that so far it hasn't shown its head in my garden in just under 10 years.

I have it several places--most of them dry shade. Our favorite spot is by the mailbox which is 2 football fields length from our front porch up hill sharply most of the way. There's no way I can get water up there! Pulmonarias--Mrs. Moon, ordinary Solomon's Seal, Blood Root, Virginia bluebell, May Apples in spring. Goose neck in mid summer along with perennial woodland sunflowers (came by themselves), several wild asters,and Virginia creeper coloring up in the fall. I brought the pulmonarias and gooseneck from my Vermont sister in law's and everything else brought itself.

Plaidbird, Some homeless may enjoy it. When we meet a new mailperson they mention it, also utility meter readers, and fisherboys, some of whom might go in that chapter you were talking about.