What is the most invasive perennial in your garden.......

We all have them.......something that keeps growing and growing and spreading.......Mine is Rose mallow......its an annual so I am told, but it thinks its a perennial cause it keeps coming back and I keep yanking it up......

invasie-hmm besides mallow
ribbon grass
gaillardia
all mints
coreopsis can be
purple phloxs
bouncing betty

wonderful plants but spread quickly

I have that mallow too. Bishops weed is the worse thing I have ever seen. I cannot believe they even charge to buy it. I was at a nursery once and a guy was loading up on it, I told him to not waste his money - come over to my house and he could have all he wanted.

Mint - but was able to pull most of it out.

Bee Balm
Chameleon Plant

That sedum called bakers acres and snow on the mtn..Left that at my other house tho..

Loretta...

Catnip!! (This is despite numerous feral cats in the area)

Next I would have to say mints. Curly and Chocolate to be specific. We also have a big problem with jewel weed, but I've never seen that for sale, so it probably doesn't apply to this thread :)

Ladybells!!

I had this at my city house and it absolutely took over a large perennial bed. I pulled and pulled but could not keep up with this plant. It spreads by underground runners and is extremely invasive. I would consider it a noxious weed. The only way I could get rid of it was to move and leave it behind. I was careful NOT to take any perennials out of that bed with me to my new house for fear a piece of this would tag along and get moved to my new flower bed.

Another very invasive plant is a wild morning glory. I don't know if that is the proper name for it. Probably isn't. It is a vine with arrow shaped leaves that wraps itself around everything and chokes the life out of it and when it blooms it has small pinkish white morning glory type blossoms on it. I did accidentally carry a root of this to my new bed and I watch for it every day and when I'd see it pop it's head up I'd pull it out. I'm hoping it will give up but if I see it again this spring I'll just pull the perennial it's on out and burn it or something. :)

I'm very careful what I plant now. I never want to have to deal with anything invasive again.

Bronze Fennel, I planted it as an accent plant for my roses, it self seeds and spreads like crazy.

Paul

Paul....got a picture of it??

Those lady bells are they the same thing as blue bells?I sure hope not as I planted way to many last summer..! ;o((

Loretta...

Heres a pix that Baa posted in the PDB

Oh dear... I planted Bronze Fennel last year as a backdrop in my herb garden... Hope I won't find it's taken over. My herb garden's so small, and I don't want it to contain only fennel!

I have fescue grass and snowball bushes that grow like weeds in my yard.

I was thinking of buying some mints and snow on the mountain this spring. Maybe I should rethink this.

Nissa
I'm going to keep my sheared back this year to keep it from going to seed.
Hopefully it will prevent it from spreading.

Paul

Paul, is there a good use for excess bronze fennel? Any reason to keep a bit more than what I might otherwise use as a backdrop?

Lemon Balm & Catnip Edited to add Black Eyed Susans, they are coming up in a lot of different places in my yard, some as far as l2 ft away from the source.

This message was edited May 5, 2006 8:47 AM

Fennel is a spice, I beleive they use the seeds in cooking. It tastes like licorce.

Paul

Paul....they use fennel in Italian sausage...

Deann

I should have remembered that, I took a sausage making class 15-20 years ago.

Paul

Vinca/perriwinkle. I planted some as a ground cover because it looks pretty and I like the flower but it has become a menace and I now spend many a happy hour weeding it out!

Oh... I wish I had your problem Suzanney. I've got maple trees all over the yard, and vinca is one of the few green things that I can get to grow on/around the roots. I keep having to steal more vinca from my mom because it's rather pricey in the nursery.

My new weed problem for this year is pulling out baby maple trees. I hate the stupid propellers that come off our trees in the spring because they make a huge mess, but now I have a whole new reason to hate them. All the stupif little maples that keep popping up all over the yard! Darn stubborn things, they sure root fast and hate to come out!

Well Rose Mallow is still a torn in my side as well as wild daisys....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Deann

Never thought this lovely pink thing would be a menace... but it now OWNS one bed of perennials and seems on it's way to drowning all the other plants. It's Oenethera aka Mexican evenig primrose - I bought the one plant labeled 'Siskiyou'. as they say - 'the rest is history'

My other invasive is vinca major. It simply continues its slow advance across the south perennial bed and then sneaks a runner half the width and up pops a new colony.

Greenbrier (of course!), the landscaper told me she thought the mother of all greenbrier lived on our little flat dune, and spread her roots out across Michigan from here.
And Ivy, which is taking over the north yard, the basement windows and the air conditioner. And I just found found out about Rosa Rugosa...lovely rose hips, but a local nursey owner told me when you prune them, they may sprout from the pruned branches, or they may decide, instead, that they need to sprout somewhere else...say...20 feet away! In any or every direction! Which they are doing....

I just though of another very invasive flower I have. It is my trumpet vine. They send runners underground and they come up all over the place, some as far away as l5 ft from the mother plant. They even went into my neighbors yard and he isn't too happy about that.

Blooms.......those are lovely......would not mind having some of those....and Iike I say....what is invasive in my garden, may not be in yours.....

Deann

You are welcome to some of my vinca, calypsa, I am going to have to start weeding it out again soon.
Walnuts are another problem for me. We have walnut trees like weeds and they seem to want to grow all over the yard (black walnuts).

i use to have the pink Oenethera all over here and thought how the heck can i stop this stuff its everywhere-that was the yr of no snow coverage and -30s for 2months
When spring came I had lost lots and that was one of the ones i was glad NOT to see come up!!! lol

So, should there be an invasive plant trade? :-)

I think I have you all beat! I planted a cute little houtaynia(?) plant a couple of years back. It's a little like an ivy, but its leaves are red and green. Plant it in clay, mud, bog, you name it, it will grow. don't ever fertilize or water the darn things, it just encourages them. It's a good thing it is such a beautiful plant, I hear you can't even kill it with "Round up".
sunnysky

PJ, what a great idea... trading invasives.... or what I call wildly successful plants. It's all that survive in my garden. ~Blooms

Probably the most invasive plant I have is a tall Rudbeckia, I don't have the botanical name available right now, the plant marker is in the garage, and its raining and cold, and I'm not about to go out there. The plant gets probably about 6 feet tall with yellow flowers, I have been trying to get rid of it for years. We call it the monster plant. Also, I agree that trumpet vine and ladybells is the second most invasive in my yard. Chelone (turtle head) tends to be the same way. Has anyone had bad luck with their Hydrangea this year? Mine is Nikko Blue...it looks like a great part of it has died. Any idea why? There have been worse winters than this and it just flourished then.

beads, how many years have you had this hydrangea? I bought a beautiful healthy one from Telly's 2 years ago and I thought I lost it after the first year. It's coming back a little every year. I also have a climbing hydrangea that has taken a life time to bloom and a oakleaf that is very lazy when it comes to showing off how beautiful it can be.

What is it with Hydranger.....I have two as well........Nikko Blue which is in its 3rd year and has never bloomed....and last year I bought a Endless summer........It better bloom this year and the Nikko blue better bloom or its off with its head......I have no patience for plants who say they will flower and don't. Here you go again, where some plants will just bloom thier little ole hearts out for some and just sit there for others...go figure........

Deann

Suzanney, I may just take you up on my offer! My mom lives in Ann Arbor too, so I could make a big sweep and fill up my car with unwanted vinca :-)

I too think an invasive plant perennial trade is be a great idea! How funny is that? Though I don't think I can get anyone to want some of my Silver Maple seedlings... I've got tons of propellers this time of year (they're ALL over my back deck) so if anyone wants maple tree seeds, they're welcome to come shovel my deck clean ;-)

Sunnysky and deann, I have had my hydrangea for more than 10 years....it started out as deann's, small with no flowers. I know it takes a while for it to get started sprouting in the spring, but usually by now it has more sprouts on the branches. I do not prune back the dead stems until after Memorial day to make sure those stems are dead and not still dormant. It is a very large hydrangea, I don't know if they eventually die out after getting old or what. I will let you both know about the progress. I was just wondering if anyone knew about the "aging" process or it was the winter. Guess I should have included that in the original message...sorry about that! I am new to this. Any more information anyone has about this would be very much appreciated!

9yrs of waiting and now the weisteria is blooming!!!! yahooooo~

I checked my Dirr manual (pulled out the big gun). It says it is not suseptable to any serious diseases or insects, and we certianly didn't have a cold winter. Dirr does not say how long lived the plant is. He also says that it does not do well in zone 5 (huhh). Winter kill will cause it to not flower (again, not a tough winter).
I was going to ask if salt may be a factor...we did salt a lot more this winter. And lastly, acid. Dirr says 5.0 to 5.5 is best. That's a lot of acid.
Hope this helps.

'Nikko Blue' blooms on old wood, so if you have winter die-back, there goes your blooms. I purchased 'Endless Summer' 2 years ago near Onaway and it has bloomed for us every summer. (Yah, in da U.P.) Yes, it does suffer from winter die-back. But, since it blooms on the current years growth, that's not a problem.
My parents used to have an old hydrangea that reached to the 2nd story. Stout enough for a young kid to practice her tree climbing.

Sunnysky and grannymarsh, Thanks for the feedback. The hydrangea is not anywhere near the cement, so salt would not be an issue, but thanks. By the way, what is the Dirr book? I am not a master gardener (yet). I have used the acid fertilizer though not yet this year. May it needs a shot of that.

Grannymarsh, love the story about the 2-story hydrangea. If Nikko does not do well, guess I will have to get an "Endless Summer". No wonder I didn't have many blooms last year. The year before that it was loaded. Didn't know it bloomed only on old wood. That is great to hear how well it does in the UP. I love the UP, only been there twice, but love it much!!

gardenbeads