yes -- they spread by runners. I dug all mine up and gave them to my sister... 3 homes ago. or is it 4 ... she moves A LOT. Even though i love strawberries.. i do not regret NOT having plants.
What are you sorry you planted......Part 3
Do you think a raised bed would help?
I just got some strawberry plants. Thanks for the reminder about their running habit. Think I'll pot them. That way I can also protect them from the birds.
Meredith... i think a raised bed would help contain them... but ya figure, it's not like they are invasive or anything.. they are easy enough to 'keep in check'. when you see the runners, just turn them in a different direction before they root. I hope you get to enjoy the fruit... critters always got more than i did... but then, i wasn't serious about it. I could have covered and whatnot.. but i didn't. the strawberry plants just rambled thru-out my rose bed.
Species buddleia, vicies something. I am still trying to get rid of the babies...I believe it was also sold around here as summer lilac. I have erraticated it to the edges of the bed where it was first planted, but it could easily take over again if I do not keep pulling. Too bad I do not have a natural area wher it can run rampant and be beautiful all summer long. We have so few plants that do that with our humidity and heat
My BIGGEST Regret- Limelight Artemeisa
I agree...Limelight is taking over my yard.
I received it but hadn't asked for it. When I first spotted the spreading I did rip it out.
Wow, you all aren't kidding. I looked it up on the MO Botanical Garden site, it would get zeros if they had that option. Every comment said never plant it.
Ditto. I could see shortly after planting Limelight that it was going to take over. I nipped it in the bud before it got too out of control. I wouldn't have it anywhere on my 8 acres and I do grow plants others consider invasive.
There really should be a warning label on pots of Limelight. Seriously.
Yep, it took over my SIL's yard. I was amazed at how fast it grew. I do have some but it's in a small pot on the concrete patio next to a brick wall with no dirt to be seen within 10 feet.
I wish mine was 5 towns away with the person that gave it to me:(
too funny!
I believe I have some of the limelight. Came in a trade a few years ago. I find that it crops up in the path and I choose to either re-plant it somewhere else or just walk on it. This year it's not as apparent as in years past. I believe the nematodes in the sand might have something to do with controlling it. So I guess I am lucky....I like it and it's not taking over.
Molly
Wonder if it would kill the kudzu, at least it doesn't climb over houses.
I had obedient plant in my garden. I got it from my mom. Although, I would have liked to have kept it in her memory, it was a real thug here. She was in Okla., and I don't think it was so aggressive there. I had to dig it up and sift through it with my fingers. I re-planted it on our slope that is the edge of a forest with quite a bit of shade. It did not make it. I would have thought it would have survived as aggressive as it is.
I dug a pot of mint into a garden, and the pot broke. I had to sift the dirt through my fingers to get rid of the roots. I now have some mint in an small urn on my deck, for the first time, since I dug it out of my garden. It is far away from any soil!
BTW, what is SW?
Lambs Ear spreads for me also, but it is easy to pull up and I like the cool grey blue color of the leaves.
I am leery of anything that says "ground cover".
I have some lamium on my deck in a pot that I am considering planting in my garden. It has orchid flowers, but I don't know the name of it. Is it difficult to control? I will only use it in hanging pots etc, if it's a manace.
We have really hot, humid weather today. I just can't stand to be in the garden today--you just start sweating in about five minutes.
White obedient plant 'Miss Manners' does pretty well at staying where you put it (hence the name) but the purple is terrible. I had it in half shade thinking that might keep it in check but it took over that spot as well. SW is referring to sweet woodruff - galium odorata - one of my most hated plants. It's very, very aggressive.
Lamium can be aggressive. I have several plants in some areas to try to keep weeds down. It hasn't spread much for me and I planted them last year.
If lamium gets out of hand, is it difficult to pull up? Does it grow from stolens? or just attaches little roots along their stems? The latter is much easier to control.
For me, Lamium forms a wide-reaching mat of fine roots. While easy to pull up,once it invades another nearby plant, it's tough to get rid of it all. Any remaining roots will form new plants. And it self-sows. The offspring generally have less silver on the leaves and can have different flower colors. I pulled all of mine out a few years ago and am still finding babies. Sweet woodruff is much tougher to get rid of and I've given up all hope of ever getting rid of all of it. While it looks cute and fresh in the spring, it generally looks pretty ratty during the summer.
Lamium self-sows widely. The wind must carry those seeds because they appear hundreds of feet apart. I hate them and rip them out. They grow in grass as well as garden beds and even in the compost.
While I, too, ripped out the originals about 15 years ago, I still find them constantly from tiny babies to big plants I missed in odd places (side of the shed) where I often don't go.
Well, I am not planting it! Now, I wonder if it would be a problem if I put it in a hanging basket with say petunias?
Has anyone tried brush killer on the SW? We use Bayer Brush Killer on really difficult thugs.
The lamium seeds will fly from your container to wherever they choose.
I wrote to Bayer to ask if BBG would kill Houttuynia and they replied: We cannot guarantee it.
This message was edited May 23, 2011 5:15 PM
Lamium does not sound like something I want to cultivate!
The only other thing I can think of to get rid of thugs would be to cut off at the ground level and then put stump killer on it?? I don't know if that would work, but I have read on other sites it has worked for tough plants. I am thinking particularly bind weed.
I hate bindweed with a passion!! I will say the bloom is pretty but that is it. lol
I need to thin one of my lamiums because it might be choking out a peony. But I will keep in the same spot for now cause it's not doing much there except hiding dirt. lol.
Can bugleweed handle dry conditions? I have a spot under the house overhang that is mostly bare dirt and want to cover it up. If bugleweed can handle it then I will try it.
For me, Ajuga (bugleweed) can handle some dry sites but it gets whatever rain falls on it. It can be tough but tempermental (it doesn't stay put where I want it to grow but travels elsewhere). In all fairness, I must admit to not being quite the watchful cultivator that I should be. It is easier to pull out where you don't want it. Anyway you can run a soaker hose under the overhang?
Not really. The hose is at the front of the house and the dry spot in the back. But I can dump water on it thru a watering can.
There's always water crystals to save the trips with the watering can.
Pirl, I'm leary of these new-fangled technologies.
I had an amusing accident with water crystals, when I accidentally dumped a little more than I intended into a clay pot with a cute little dwarf conifer.
The next day after a good rain, it looked like a scene from an I Love Lucy episode where she dumps the whole box of laundry detergent into the washing machine.
My poor little conifer was sitting a foot higher than the pot, precariously perched on a jiggling wad of soaked crystals.
It was a gooey mess trying to rescue the poor guy.
I reconstitute them and have a big jug of them so when I'm planting I just put in what the plant can use as needed but I have made your mistake in the past. It's quite a sight to see!
I've also done that...my geranium was tottering drunkenly atop mounds of jelly!
Pam
My granddaughter spilled them on our patio, and didn't tell me. At first look I couldn't figure out what the blob was. They scooped up okay but they do feel funny. The gardens at church are so much easier to take care of now that I've used crystals when we plant, we water half as much or not at all if it rains.
Sort of like disconnected clear Jell-o! Yes, they do feel funny but they work well.
Oh my - the visuals in my head re: water crystals. :) With the soaker hose, DH worked out a system with a 4-way faucet spigot so that I can run soaker hoses from the side faucet to the front and the back of the house to cover the areas under the eaves, interspersed with solid sections of hose where I don't want water.
What a great guy your husband is!
I have no doubt. It's nice when husbands are helpful.
This is a neat thread! Hi everyone. Has anyone planted this campanula? I took a liking of its pendant blooms, though they're not very showy. When I did some prelimary reading on some variety it's said some can be very invasive. Anyone recognizes this as being one?
