Continued from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1105209/
What are you sorry you planted......Part 3
Thanks killdawabbit ;)
kilda...my SW is in dry shade and went wild. It took over the entire bed and the hosta that I have in it are just about gone. It hides the leaves and seems to 'stunt' them for lack of a better word.I've pulled this stuff out by the wheelbarrow loads as well and next to come out is the Roundup. I hate to use it but I just can't get the stuff to stop growing at a crazy rate and it's starting to get awfully close to another bed. It's killed the entire bed almost except for the tree - lol.
Wow, that IS bad. But me? I don't even hesitate to bring out the Roundup. In fact, my place is so big I have maybe 7 or 8 different sprayers located in different areas of my gardens so I don't have to walk my butt off whenever I need it.
Oh cindy,,, It looks like such a pretty plant !
jm
jane - That's what I thought too when I planted it. It's as least as difficult as SW to get rid of. I do cut back any flowering stems I see but killing off it's root system is difficult. I've given up on Roundup - the Campanula laughs at it. This time I'm trying Ortho's Brush and Poison Ivy Killer on it. I can't dig up the areas until I kill it and surely can't even put new plants in those spots. This is the third year that I've done chemical battle with it.
I agree with Cindy. It's rough to have to fight the wrong plants that took over just because some of us wanted that quick coverage. I think Houttuynia will be with me until the bitter end. Even Round Up hasn't worked to kill it.
After dealing with my own mistakes and those we inherited with the property, I'm convinced that groundcovers should come with a warning label. Something along the lines of "before planting, be sure that you love this plant enough to want to deal with it EVERYWHERE on your property." Seriously; everything seems to carry a warning label these days, why not plants that richly need one?
Ruth
It sounds good to me.
Last week, at a garden club meeting, an agent from the Cooperative Extension Service spoke about invasive plants and those plants that should not be planted. She handed out literature on the subject and nowhere were my thieves of garden time mentioned.
My top offenders are Houttuynia, Aegopodium and Celandine.
It's a difficult situation when the local extension service doesn't know what runs rampant through many of our gardens.
My worst offenders aren't ones I planted, so maybe not appropriate for this thread. Unless they came along as stow-aways with some other plant, I guess. They are eupatorium rugosum, onion, star-of-bethlehem, asian honeysuckle bush and about 5 vines (euonymus, virginia creeper, vinca, then a couple I don't know the names of - I call one 'grape vine' and I don't have a family-friendly name for the other one). How much more pleasant gardening could be without having to deal with these thugs!
My celandine poppies are 'enthusiastic', but I don't mind them popping up everywhere, as they're pretty and easy to pull. Similarly wild tall phlox reseeds everywhere; they're also easily pullable, but I rarely have the heart to do it!
It's a sorry state when the unwanted intruders hitch a ride with good plants.
We had ivy growing on trees and the post and rail fence - 40' of it. I spent the entire month of October 2007 removing it and digging out the massive roots. Another miserable one (that we have had and birds must continue depositing seeds) is the Porcelain Berry Vine. We have to remain alert for emerging plants to get them out as soon as possible.
I have a porcelain berry vine but it's never flowered for me. Too much shade I think (which sounds like a good thing!). I had sprayed my invasive Campanula earlier this season with poison ivy killer since Roundup wasn't working. I do see a few stray leaves but I'll wait to see what more pops up in the spring. Another one I dislike is Pachysandra. Even though I do have some ever-enlarging patches that I intentionally planted, trying to keep my neighbor's out of my beds is crazy! They'll borrow under 12" deep walls. Ugh.
I agree with Weerobin on the celandine poppies. Mine are at the back of the property where it's a little more wild and seem to be better behaved than Virginia bluebells which have escaped to the woods.
These are the Celandine I have. I doubt they're the "poppy" type.
Pachysandra is annoying to delete. I've gone through it a few times but it is an easier war to win than some other miserable plants.
Here's the photo to go with the post.
Here's what I call celandine poppy. Stylophorum diphyllum
This is mine - Lesser Celandine and I wish I had "lesser" of it:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/39939/
The match was ideal, Cindy, but the Celandine then invaded one of my Japanese iris gardens and was trying to take over all of Southold. Yes, mine is wild.
LOL! Every great once in a while I get great accidental color combos. The last one was blue woodland phlox (which has gone wild here), blue wandering Ajuga and promiscuous silver-leaved Lamium (can't remember which one at this point) - all intermingled (I wasn't paying attention) and blooming at the same time. I think that combo rebelliously lasted only a year or two before they all parted ways.
Well, what could you expected with the notoriously promiscuous Lamium in the group? That one makes friends MUCH too easily!
I enjoy the accidental happenings even more than those I plan.
This accidental grouping also lasted only a year or two.
Serendipity.
Edited to add: Sadly, serendipity is sometimes more effective than my imagined 'perfect plant combinations'.
This message was edited Oct 18, 2010 7:02 PM
The writer, Pamela Harper, author of Color Echoes (an excellent book), recommends removing a flower and walking around your gardens until you find a good match. I did that today with some leaves of an Aucuba so I could match it to a hosta and found Paul's Glory was the ideal match. That job is now done.
Found another huge area of mosses while I was looking for the ideal hosta so some moss may join the group since it's a full shade area. The moss would be at the very front so it might get 10 minutes of sun each day.
Thanks. Pamela's methods certainly work for me.
I've redone one bed many times and finally, after about 15 years, got it right.
This is my favorite part of that garden.
I can see why it is your favorite - it is lovely.
What a beautiful garden, Pirl. I hope you take some time to enjoy it!
Thank you both. The dining table adjoins that garden so we do get to enjoy it.
pirl - What a perfect balance of textures. Very nice. I tend to look at textures more in my own garden since the flowers are minimal after the spring burst. My side garden, which gets more sun, is where I get more flowers and it definitely needs work although I tend to be more attached to plants that don't cooperate with my plan. :)
Thank you, Cindy.
It must be nature's way that we seem more attached to non-cooperative plants. I love delphiniums and some years they do fine while other years they die a pathetic death.
All that matters is that you grow it and, I hope, love it. I've never even heard of it. That always comes as a rude awakening!
We did have success with Magic Fountain for about five years and then it disappeared. The one I loved best was Royal Aspiration but it didn't return this year.
OK - I admittedly envy anyone that can grow Delphiniums. Yours look beautiful.
D. tricorne is more of a perennial larkspur and a wildflower. It's much shorter. I got it at a wildflower nursery in TN a few years back and it's been a reliable bloomer which surprised me. I did try to start more from collected seed but it's one of those challenging types that need multiple cycles.
I found your sweet little gem using Google. As long as it keeps coming back I'd have no quarrel with it.
there are a few things i almost regret planting....
including -
Wild Bergamot Monard - i just madly dead head it
New England asters - also madly dead head, plus a local Doe likes to munch on it in the summer, so it stays shorter.
what i regret planting...
YARROW!!! ugggggggggggggggg
Chocolate Mint -- Mentha x piperita f. citrata 'Chocolate'
maybe if i contained it in a pot....
OH - Parsley -- grew it for butterflies/caterpillars - but they never came.
I did just plant some sweet william -- hope i dont regret that too. I'ts in sandy soil, in a hosta bed... if it gets out of control, it should pull up easily.
Terese
Isn't it funny how just slightly different zones can cause such differences in growth rates? I can't get yarrow to spread in my yard for anything. I think the plants I set out 7 or 8 years ago are barely larger than they were then. Perhaps that indicates the sorry state of our soil here???
I do agree that any type of mint needs to stay in a pot. But parsley--can't have enough of that. The butterflies/caterpillars are welcome to whatever I don't use for cooking.
My biggest regret is obedient plant....back when I was very inexperience and SO misled by the name LOL
I too have heard that about Obedient Plant -- thankfully, it never germinated for me.
my Yarrow is the white one...i'd think it if were a nice color, it wouldn't be so bad... though the white does look good with my Blue Flax ... just if it would have stayed in place, i wouldnt mind it so much.