Has anyone found yarrow to be invasive? I planted some last year, and it seems to be vigorously spreading. Am I in for some trouble?
Curse of the (fill in the blank)....
Does this include dwarf monkey grass? Is this the one everyone's got planted? LOL.
Mine is overwhelming... I believe it was dwarf also. Amazing there aren't more negatives in the PF.
Dennis ~ I would love to be invaded by yarrow... 8 )
Dennis, I had yarrow for years and it was very well behaved. It wasn't invasive at all for me.
Crow
Would all agree monkey grass is invasive?
Important timing because I was considering some of the dward variety!
I have a little wild onion and also wild garlic (with the pinkish flowers). I like them! Not invasive at all here and they're welcome in my yard anytime. Of course, being in the Hill Country some things that are invasive elsewhere aren't invasive here. Spiderwort does spread a bit, but I just dig it up and put it elsewhere if it's inconvenient somewhere.
We have two liriopes (monkey grass) one variegated and one plain. They came with our house, and in ten years they've never spread. In truth, the only exciting thing mine do is hide snakes.lol I think with some investigating you may be able to come up with a noninvasive variety.
I think the same is true of the yarrow as well. I purchased one a few years back and remember the sales lady saying is was a non aggressive cultivar. It's stayed exactly the same size as when I purchased it. Then last year I purchased another yarrow and noticed this spring it's tripled in size. I don't know if it's certain species or hybrids that makes the difference tho.
Do you remember the name, Dennis?
I have 2 of the variegated lirope in my front garden--they've never spread, but the do get fuller with time.
So any substitute for monkey grass?
I was looking for something that won't die back in winter, stays small, can grow in shade or sun. All things I've seen of monkey grass.
Linda, I wouldn't mind the wild onions if they didn't make the lawn look unkept. :) They don't stay to beds. They are all over.
usually you don't have much of a problem with those native onions if your St Augustine is healthy--it chokes them out
Well the front "lawn" is pitifall since we moved around some landscape beds and are due to lay new sod for all the left behind dirt patches. But there are only a few onions (shaded front). The backyard, all sun no trees, has the thickest Augustine, feels like walking on thick thick carpet (!) but it has the most onions.
I'm curious to understand this weed because I've not seen it until moving to this house. It's not the worst to have. My only complaint is like I said, you mow, few days later 6" tall onions and looks like you've neglected your yard! AGH!
Here the wild onions haven't begun to bloom. Seems like after spring, they disappear for the rest of the year. I love the fragrance when mowed.
It is likely the variegated liriope does not present as much grief. I know the Asian jasmine in variegated form is not as aggressive.
I have a bed under a live oak that has heaps of loriope in it. In the four years we've lived here, the bed seems to get more crowded with it every year but only a few have ever escaped. They don't go out into the grass, but sometimes I'll see a plant that has seemingly sneaked out between the bed's border stones and out into our pea gravel path. No biggie, they come out easily.
Yikes, snakes? Not a fan of those!
Lise
loriope = monkey grass. I hope I can remember that ;)
the native onions will be history in a couple of weeks
I got the yarrow at an RU. It had no flowers and was labelled "paprika". After planting it the flowers came in white, so I don't know the actual variety.
Oh, I know what you are talking about. There is a wild white yarrow, my husband brought me up some from the pasture and it has spread...a lot. I haven't brought any to an RU tho, not that I know of at least :0)
edited: is this it? http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=1651725
Edited the second time: found this interesting tidbit in plantfiles... "Note that when you pop for the wildly colored Yarrows that sometimes show up in nurseries, it's likely to revert back to its native off-white the following season."
This message was edited Mar 23, 2009 3:43 PM
That looks like the yarrow I have. Reading the comments on it, it sounds like I am not the only one to notice its spreading nature... I think I'll take it out of the bed I have it in, since it is encroaching too much upon its neighbors. Too bad, since it has very attractive evergreen foliage and does great in full sun with no irrigation. It sounds like a good candidate for containers. :)
Dwarf monkey grass is not invasive. In fact, it can be pretty slow to spread. Haven't had any trouble with liriope either, but monkey grass (mondo grass) is awful. Stay with the dwarf.
I have dwarf spreading thru a bed and popping up between the bricks in the sidewalk. From seed? Or from runners? The soil in this bed is not improved or watered or fertilized.
Mine is spreading, but very slowly. I've seen it used instead of creeping thyme in between flagstone, and wondered how long it would take to fill in. Maybe my soil is too rich for it!
Dennis, I have Paprika, and that's definitely not it. It's bright red, and doesn't spread nearly as much as the naturalized achillea sp. I can bring you a very small division to the Arlington RU if you'd like. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/7468/
I also have this one. It was a very small fall-planted plug and hasn't bloomed for me yet, but it's spreading, if you like it. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/206386/
My biggest enemy right now, other than nut grass, is nandina. Or rather damdina. We cleared out a 3 x 8 bed of that stuff a few years ago and now we have to clear out a much bigger 3 x 16 bed of it. It's been there for some 50 years and I don't look forward to this. We need to buy a new ax and pick ax because we broke the ones we had digging that small bed out. That turned into a very expensive project. We have the kind that grows taller and taller indefinitely. Before we bought this house from DH's dad that stuff had grown taller than the eves on the house because he was too lazy to cut it down to a reasonable size. It completely hid the front door. But we have figured out finally what to plant in its place, so it's time for it to go.
One word for you....backhoe! I think that's the only way to get rid of that *#$%)!! LOL It really does make for interesting winter foliage, but it's a pain to get rid of.
I've been there and feel your pain. On the plus side, once I finished pulling it out it never came back. I thought I would be pulling it out of that bed forever.
Dfw, how long ago did you dig it up and what kind was it? It's coming back in the small bed we already dug up. Those roots are the size of tree roots! I agree with the back hoe idea except that we have to be careful about the pecan tree nearby. I don't like the tree, but it is very good shade. I don't know when we are going to start the attack. I have some other beds that need to be dug because the plants are already here and waiting to go in. But I never know when DH is going to get in the mood to play armadillo. I'm usually the armadillo in the family and I already know I won't make any headway on that damdina. Oh well!
Mary Ann.....Josephine and Frank had to dig nandina at their house up against the foundation. You might ask her to weigh in on the struggle they had.
Whatever kind it was seemed to top out at about 5 or 6 feet. The bed was about 6 ft by 10 feet, and it took me quite a few weekends to dig up. I had to dig down several feet to dig out some of the larger clumps. It had been there at least the 5 years I owned it, but it was very established when we moved in so pobably much longer.
Yes I remember Josephine talking about that. Seems like they did use a backhoe.
I don't know about the backhoe, but she said it was backbreaking! LOL!
We dug out a little patch of nandina and it took a lot of work with the pick axe.
Native honysuckle,mimosa ,and redbud work me to death each year . I'm gone for seven months and this stuff makes forrests. Can't kill it . Oh, and nandina, can't dig it up ,the roots are a blanket under the ground . Digger
I love blackberries, but they grow wild here and they end up being such a PAIN! When they die back they are all (6') woody, thorny and hurt to get out. I rarely get enough yield to feel like I'm losing anything. My guess is living in the woods, the woodland creatures are dining on them (and/or the birds who eat my figs too).
We also have Beautyberry which, when I first moved down here, I was so excited to have. Now that I've fought them for four years I'm of the opinion they have got to go.
But the bane of my existence is the Sweet Gum Tree!!!! Ho-ly CRAP I hate those things!! They don't provide enough shade to make themselves useful. They drop those dad-gum spikey balls EVERYwhere, which are hard to rake up and DO NOT BURN! They're full of seeds which sprout wherever they land. I hate them!!! I want everyone on my property GONE!
Other than that, and I don't know ALL the varieties I have, we have vines that are taking over our property. And they aren't just one kind. Sheesh! We fight them every year and it seems like they're coming back stronger. They wrap themselves in our best trees and try to choke them out. And some have very thorny runners. Grrrrrrrr!
But Dennis, I sure wish I was close enough to relieve you of some of your invasive yarrow! I LOVE the stuff! I had it growing in my garden in Benbrook and I'd dare say it was my favorite plant in the garden. I really miss it.
Uh oh, just ordered a beautyberry. And I have to agree with you about the Sweet Gum, although they are beautiful in the fall. And for a problem with the Sweet Gum which you didn't mention, look at the roots on this one
There's a Sweet Gum tree up the street from us and I detest that thing! Those seed pod things end up all over the place!
The do have some now that are, hmmm, I hesitate to say ball-less, but maybe they're sterile? I have a friend who bought one. The leaves aren't as sharply defined.
Sweet gum will also sprout along the roots . When we moved here 15 yrs ago , my dh wanted to cut one down . Oh no , me ? , cut a tree ? .That would be murder ! Well , after that puppy got a little bigger , it was me , up a ladder ,cutting as far as I could reach so that when he put a chain saw to it ,it wouldn't take out all my good stuff . I cut sprouts off the roots for several years .
I agree with the blackberries and saw briers too. A spading fork and a pair of leather gloves are always with me outside Digger
Yep I wait until fall to get after my blackberries & saw briars!! They're dry & come out easily - well except for the thorns! Being dry makes them sharper. But like you say, with leather gloves, long sleeves and boots - it's almost fun! lol
Gee, I try to pull them up in the spring after the rains ,so as to get as many roots as possible.Spading fork is to losen the soil if needed . Digger
:) Thank you for the additions. I've added them to top.
If we are talking trees as well as plants then I third that vote on Sweetgum. Now ours are older and have tree rings (must be covering those surface roots?) and never had to deal with them sprouting up again in the yard or along their roots.
But when we looked for a Houston house I didn't care for most of the trees used here. I didn't want trees in the backyard, preferred a blank canvas for myself and if trees were in the front there were some I didn't want at all. I don't care for the towering pines, Chinaberry's (look at those killer twisted surface roots to spread across the width of your lawn and the nice hard shells they drop), oaks (similar reasons as the Sweetgum---drops acorns and then replants itself with squirrls help) and then Magnolias. Now if you have expansive room for a Magnolia by all means. But I don't care for their huge leaves they drop and their foilage is dark, since my yard is already shaded the small Magnolia it had in it had to go.
We're left with 2 Sweetgums. And man I dread the pokey balls. But a quick 30 minutes I get a mild workout actually going round with a trash bag and yep, I pick them up by hand. Kids love to do that to. :) Still a nusience since I prefer to be barefoot in my yard but with the Sweetgums that would be impossible because the pokey-balls are dangerous to the feet!
What shade they did provide was reduced by Ike when we lost 2-3 substantial branches but not enough (dang) to ruin them enough that they are misshapen and require removal.
One neighbor had 2 perfectly fine Pines in her front yard (I saw perfectly because for all intents and purposes they looked healthy not that they are a perfect choice to plant) and she had the stumps ground out and then replaced both Pines with 2 Red Maples. A nice replacement I thought and rarely seen in Houston, at least in my subdivision.
The trees here are all: Pines, Oaks, Magnolias, Sweetgums, Chinaberry, Crepe Myrtal (if that is a tree---more a shrub).
One neighbor has a Magnolia, untrimmed. Have you ever seen one untrimmed? Wow, it is every bit as wide as their front yard almost and it is so top heavy on a short trunk so that the limbs from top hang down and touch the lawn. You can't see past this tree to the house at all (since it's a one story it really is hidden well) . I was surprised they could look so unruly!
Sounds like I hate all trees doesn't it :)
I guess I just miss the varieties I grew up with in the north---not to say those are contenders for the "perfect" trees either.