I never should have planted those

Ok Weeding again in the cold muck and I am pulling out any euphorbia robbie I see. It runs looks ok but it can take over a great bed. In the right spot dry neglected shade it is ok but not a good bed. So I', on it and then I get this hard to pull up weed/plant I start to think what is in here then oh crap that bad bishops weed I never should have planted that. Again in the right spot ok but not in a good bed. I could go on. It is the time of the year when we are digging and dividing and sometimes there is a reason things are free.

Oh my goodness! So right! So this looks like a thread for the 'sorry I ever planted those' plants. Lysimachia clethroides comes to mind. I love that gooseneck flower, but it is so rampant! Last year I dug it all up and tried to make it grow in pots sunk into the ground. It sulked badly and I didn't even get a bloom from it. I do like it so I'm not ready to completely give in, but I can't have it taking over the lily bed. Maybe I should try the 'dry neglected shade' routine with this plant. It might not be as happy there. Good idea.

Then there is the lovely Petasites 'golden palms'. It is even more dangerous than Petasites japonica. I simply love the large golden leaves so much that I am willing to put up with it a bit, but I'm wondering if my neighbors are going to like it as much. When it puts out runners it really runs fast! This one I really do not want to get rid of. I like it too, too much. Maybe a barrier of some kind. I think I saw a leaf coming up over in the neighbor's yard. I could try that one in the neglected shade area, too, but it looks so great where it is. I think it gets tooooo much water there and likes it too much, though. I put that one in year before last, and last year I was already giving runners away and composting them, too. What does that tell you?

Then Carex 'Ice Dance'. what a terrific sedge that is. The slugs hate it, it stays beautiful all year, great looking plant with the hostas. But I tell you I'm not sure that I can leave it. I'm having to pull it out several times a year. That's a lot of pulling. Problem is sometimes I expect too much of a plant. This one just wants to run free.

How about Linaria purpurea 'Canon Went'? I collected seed from this from a plant in Pt. Townsend, thinking it looked innocent enough. I was thrilled with I had good germination. Should have known that was not a good sign. Now it is everywhere. Ditto Feverfew. I bought some with a double bloom, thinking they would make good filler. Now they try to fill everything in sight.

Then there is the lovely Japanese anemone. I keep 'Honorine jobert' because the flowers are so graceful and tall, and they are perfect in the bed by the door. But keeping that one in check is a problem. Constant vigilance. It's the only answer.

Hey Pix
You gave some of those to me and I know you said some where not nice, and I have looked up most of the names on the the tags, but some I had no luck in finding cause the tags where hard to read, and the gooseneck was one and the Carex too, Do you remember some of the others that are that way. before I make the big BO BO. I wonder which of who win if I planted them out with the ever taking over Blackberrys?

Hey Pixie,
I agree with you on the anemone, I have the Anemone hupehensis var. japonica...pale pink. I wish I knew how much I had to fight it to keep it in line. But I will say the foilage is worth growing the plant. That is why I still have it in the garden...but if anyone wants any let me know, it needs to be in an area where you don't care if it rambles...mine is in morning sun afternoon filtered shade and loves it!

Heidi,

What is the difference in this anemone and grape leaf? they look very same/similar to me?

Hi cocoajuno, I think they are the same plant just a little different leaf. I have also been trying to rip out the anemone. I have one section where in late summer it pokes out a beautiful white flower. I call many of these bad plants ostrich plants. I have had my head in the sand for years. I know thay are taking over my garden and they are bad but haven't had the time or energy to get them. I need to takle a huge yellow hop next. It is over and arbor in a taxus hedge and up a hinokii cyperuss. Then there are these bad rubbery roots that go forever underground and they are hard to pull and cut.

Pixy I know the linnera I saved a few pink plants from mrs. norris yard. Now it is everywhere. Also I have petisites gigantea in my upper flower bed which is in my lawn now. Its bad. What do I have to do now dig up part of my lawn. Not smart to plant that one. Sometimes less water and less than optimal growing conditions can keep things in check.

Yikes - just considering what to plant in the wild area - I'd say about half of the above is on the list, and true gardener that I am, I find myself thinking -' yea, but it'll be okay here....' - sound familiar?

laurie I thought the same but now that I am older and busyier and there are more cool things that are great and not quite so much work, Be pateint and reseach or you might be like us and a few years saying oh I wish I would have listened. So aren't as bad if they are in a dry area . The anenomies in a large area can be great. And English gardens can be beautiful woven all together, I am running out of space so I need more controled plants.

I my naivety, I purchased a 4" pot of japanese blood grass (Imperata cylindrica 'Rubra') a couple of years ago. This summer I tried to annihilate it. I wonder if I came anywhere near. I was spreading, growing through other plants, all sorts of obnoxious activities in my garden. The stuff spreads by rhizomes, and seems to push area coverage over all other growth. And in reality, it is just one bloody leaf every 3 inches or so. I could see it looking great in certain contexts, but its going to be awhile before I try that one again.

Analog, you must have the perfect area for Jap. Bloodgrass. Mine isn't thuggish at all, so maybe it's actually struggling! LOL!

Here's what I decided to try with the petasites. Don't know if it will work or not yet. When the petasites starts leafing out I'm going to take my flat edged spade cut around the patch of petasites that I want to keep, hopefully cutting through all of the runners that start at the main plant. Then I'm going to take full strength Roundup and paint each of the emerging leaves with a paintbrush of it. I'm hoping that this will kill off the runners without hurting the main plant. I'll let you know. That might work for you, Heidi, w/ your P. giganteus.

Tills, when things start growing in the pots, anything you can't identify take a photo of and dmail me. I should be able to help you out. Just don't plant ANY kind of lysimachia in a nice moist and sunny spot unless you want it to take over. You might try potting the petasites, but they don't generally take well to pots unless they are very large ones. I think the best bet is to plant these things under conditions that are less than optimal. My problem is that my perennial borders are not really all that big, so things that spread quickly I just need to avoid. period.

I love carex ice dance. I'll take any extra you guys have.

In front in my unfenced area, there is nothing touching it. But in back, where it's fenced, something is nibbling just the tips of it. All I can think of is voles - any other ideas?

hi Katie I think voles usually eat the roots. It might be a leaf hopper. A nice lady comes to the nursery every year she goes to the concerts in Quilacene. Her name is Karen chapman and she worked at Molbacks and no she does wonderful containers and fine gardening magazine was comming to take pictures of her pots and she said she was have trouble with leaf hoper eatting the leaves. Their juvinile life are those spit bugs. Maybe take a picture and post it on the bug section. Sometimes I cut it all the way back to get pretty new growth.
My blod grass I think has died. I think I am too dry.
Pixy when you go to buy round-up read some of the other brands. round up is a trade name. You are buying 2-4-D or gypso something. I bought this round bottle I cant remember the brand I'll check but it was 41% round up and it was like 14.00. Most round up is alot more money and less strenght. I sprayed the whole bed big time and I came back. The flower beds are so dry thats why is is heading for the lawn. I'm going to try to dig it. I'm feeling quite Helgaish lately.

Hope it doesn't get too cold. I remayed some thing hope they make it.

Yeah, I might be able to find a cheaper brand than the 'round up' brand. I usually just go for what I already have in stock in the greenhouse.
katie, I can give you some 'Ice Dance'. I love it, too. Just have to keep it in line in the birch tree bed. It's one of the nicest sedges. I had Carex siderostricha 'variegata', which was nice as well, and a little shorter, but the slugs went crazy for it and that drove ME crazy. When I go to edge it I'll save it for you.

Beautiful day out in the garden! I got another part of the lily bed dug out, soil amended with lovely compost, and replanted. Plus got some winter sowing done. I have tons of little Allium bulgaricum bulb babies. I'll probably bring those to the swap. Plus I have some little pink hardy geraniums that I'm not going to replant. I don't know the name of them but I'm putting those back for the swap, too. Then found seedlings from Allium schubertii! I'm excited by those. I can't say I'm feeling particularly 'Helgaish' since all I really want now is a nice massage.

Just found this thread, too. Fun to catch up a bit.

My worst nightmares are Tall Verbena (sorry, can't think of the actual name) and Yellow Scabiosa. Truly come up everywhere.

I have Anemones (white and pink), but so far just love them (I've had them about four years, I think).

Goosneck (and any LYsimachia) I agree can be a horrible issue. My Gooseneck is in a bed bordered by the cement driveway so hasn't been a problem, but another Lysicmachia which is similar jumped from one bed into several others.

I'm not too troubled by Feverfew - I yank it out if it shows up where I don't want it.

Now, if someone can come up with a safe way to get rid of blackberry vines, please please please let me know. And Stinging Nettles (I don't care if they DO have some value, they are in the nightmare category for me!). And Horsetail. And Morning Glory (the white weedy variety, not the lovely pastels).

And the world's worst weed is Sheep Sorrel. It can lie dormant forever also, and then pop up if someone disturbs the soil. Someone like me when we first moved into this house and there were no flower beds - such fun to rototill, you know!!

um, Verbena bonariensis? (Did I spell that right?)
I've had a lysimachia Alexander, and for a Lysimachia it's behaved fairly well, although i have decided that I still don't like it. So far It's not proving amenable to leaving my garden, though. It did grow under the fence to my neighbor, and SHE likes it, so I may never be totally free of it. I'm going to be making a substantial effort to get rid of it this spring, though.
Kenilworth Ivy (Cymbalaria muralis)-so cute I still like it, but, man, it's gone everywhere.
Lemon balm.

Somewhere I read that for blackberry you should cut the stems back to the ground and pour round-up into the cut tissue and repeat a couple of times.

Carole, the best way I have found to get rid of blackberry vines is to cut them to the ground and cover the ground with heavy cardboard, wet it completely, then put about 8 inches of good compost on top and leave it for a year. That's if the area is covered w/blackberries. If you want to have extra insurance, you paint each stump with full strength stump killer. Use a paintbrush straight from the bottle and be careful.

With horsetail, I understand that raising the ph of the soil by adding a good measure of dolomite lime will create conditions that they don't like. If they are in your borders it may create conditions that the other plants don't like, either, though. I think this actually works because believe it or not, I wanted to grow it in my veggie filter attached to the pond. I figured I just would not let any go to seed and since the runners would be contained it would be safe. The pond water has a ph of around 8.0. The horsetail struggled to survive and gave up the ghost in less than a year. I could never figure that out until I saw someone on DG, I think it was Herpst (who apparently is no longer here) post about horsetail not liking alkaline conditions.

My mom says she is making some progress with her horsetail by just breaking the stem bits off every time she sees them start to sprout. She told me she read somewhere that it will eventually just deplete the plant. But, she's been working at this for years and still has some. I'll have to pass the alkaline tip along to her. However, most of hers are growing near rhodies & azaleas-not someplace that wants to go alkaline.

That is the downside to that form of control, no doubt.

Unfortunately, my blackberry vines pop up in the midst of lovely flower beds. I will try the painting with stump killer, though - I'd heard that before, but either forgot or hadn't gotten around to it. Both entirely possible reasons! I just break my horsetail off at ground level - supposed to work, but we'll see!!! I have it by the tons and can't imagine that it would do the trick.

Carole - cut the Blackberry canes as far back as possible; paint with full-strength Round-up (Glyphosate) OR Stump/Brush killer, slip a zip-lock bag over the top and zip closed as much as possible. This way, the surrounding plants won't touch it. It worked for me, but I did it in the Spring and Fall.

Thanks, Katye - I'll wait until Spring . . . I probably would wait anyway, but thanks for the excuse!

This does not quite go with this tread in a way, but more of 'I never should of dive that low'
Had a freak accident at the store today, something I have never seine happen and almost had to close the store.
I don't know the name of the duck ( I call it a harbor duck, they hang out with the seagulls)
This duck crash into one of are windows, broke it, the sound from inside the store sounded like a car went thru the front of the building. I ran to the front thinking someone is hurt when I got there I herd someone say somebody threw a rock.
My person running the front of the store was just running back in from outside telling me it was a duck and it was laying on the ground I think is dead. I went out and the duck was up and walking and shaking its head. I had to take care of the store first did my duties, then I went back out to find the duck, a kid told me where it went. It had walk around the side of the building and was by the dumpster, its looked OK just couldn't fly. Called Paws wildlife and they wouldn't help. went back to see it and it was gone.
Total havoc in the store the rest of the day, had to close off most of the front area until I could fined a glass place to help secure the window. this happened at 2PM
the Glass Doc. got there at 8pm one really long day.

Good grief, Mary - but you know what? I love that you were concerned about the duck!!!! Glad you (and all your people at the store) were okay . . . go relax now!!!

Carole

Winding down now, A couple of Advil PM and Nite Nite
Carol and prayers it you and Steve. AMEN
Glad your back
Mary

Were the advils for you or the duck - bet he had a h@ll of a headache!

The duck thing makes me think of Aflac commercials...

Murmur ~ We haven't met yet, but hi. I'm Sheri in Port Angeles. I have the exact same problem plants as you, except for the morning glory. Neighbor behind has been pouring lime on her horsetails (which are far more prolific than mine) with good success.

Last summer DH sprayed our head-high, very dense stinging nettles with full-strength Round-up, which did quite a good job on them. I understand now he has to keep them weed-whacked or we have to pull them as they come up. That area is a nightmare because the nettles are intermingled with the blackberries. I feel the need for full body armor before I tackle the area. . .

I like pix's suggestion - weedwack the entire area and smother in cardboard and mulch for a year. Just let it sit, you've got the whole parterre area to work on, and then next year - if you can really bear it, smother it again for good measure. Then it will be brillant for planting.

Laurie ~ Guess I'm gonna be going on a cardboard roundup. DH has to repair the weed whacker and we have a DR Trimmer, so maybe we can keep it low this year.

Sherri - keep it low, but until you can get the cardboard over it - strim regularly and leave the strimmings in place - nettles are very high in good stuff, and are great additions to the compost - if the tops have not gone to seed, and definately not the roots.

This one should never have been planted under a window, was moving on in under the bird cage.

And where it got in. DH has put it around the window seal, he likes it ?

A bulb that was really stupid to start here in ANY location was Arum - italicum, was given those back in 1991 and still trying to get rid of them...Love the foliage but invasive is NOT THE word.

Another is an Allium, Purple Sensation and Wild Hair, once you plant them here ANY place they become invasive.

Wish there was a spray just for those three bulbs that you could spray and it NOT hurt anything but those.

D

Live and learn.

But those should come with warnings for sure.

Same as IRIS PSEUDACORUS

I'm with you on Iris Pseodacorus. Hate it. Horsetails like wet clat so it you can try to dry out the area that sometimes helps. I think one of the only chemicals that works on horstails very effectivly is crossbow. You can usually find it at cenex. Which is a feed store. It doesn't kill grass just broad leafed weeds. It is potent. Heidi

So sorry about the duck and about your day, Mary. Hope he's okay.

For future reference, I believe that Sarvey Wildlife Reserve will come pick up any wild animal. I called them for an opossum that they ended up nursing back to health and releasing into the wild.

Hi Tills also there is a place on Bainbridge right by blodel reserve that takes all animals. My friend Beth took a squirel there. Tough Duck. Boo caught one of my tame ducks at the pond brought it up to me to show me his proud cat moment and I thought he killed it. But he spit it out and the duck took off back to the pond. Yahooee

Katie:
I hope this never happens again, I will make a note of that. Thanks

Posted same time, I work in Lynnwood, don't think BI would come that far?

Sarvey has/had a volunteer who drives all over (they're in Arlington or farther north). He's called "Crazy Mike". He drove all over the Puget Sound area and even picked up injured birds. Don't know how much that has changed.

http://www.sarveywildlife.org/

What about Bracken Fern? I'm not sure whether to pull it or not. I know it's breaking off at the base, but at least I have less of a plant to clean up come fall and I won't be getting more spores out there.

Thanks, Pix, for the offer of the sedge. I have seen that it gets pretty big, but it seems to do so well in wet clay, of which I have a lot.

Heidi - I guess I should put up a picture of the sedge (need to get a new battery for my camera) to see what's eating it. It's happened this winter, though, so I just don't think it's bugs. And the other sedge isn't that far away, just toward the front of the house . . .

Maybe it's my crazy, redbeckia-nibbling dogs . . .

Actually, it could be. My dogs and cats both eat my ornamental grasses. I don't think they've ever gone for the 'Ice dance' but it could happen. This past spring I took to placing moth balls in the crowns of the grasses to keep the animals out. It isn't as though the cats don't have their catmints to keep them happy. But they have to go for my grasses.

Yeah. They all like grasses. I only let one cat out (because she pees when she's stressed and because she's very careful since seeing her "sister" killed) since my cat was killed by the coyote last year, but it could have been her . . . miss Honey Bunny. Didn't think of that.