"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it brings."

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Please leave, I'm asking nicely.

You three plants know who you are.  Every year I spend hours digging you up, pulling you out and ignoring you.  Yet you just keep coming back for more punishment.  I don't have anything against you personally, I just don't want you here.  I've seen you looking quite beautiful other places.  Places that you could roam and be free.  In fact I've had you in other gardens and thought you looked quite pretty.  It's just that here, in this garden, I don't want you.
Bishop's weed (aegopdium podafraria)
and ajuga
came with this house.  Not many plants did, and the others left when I asked them to.  You two have been haunting me for 10 years and just don't want to give up.  I've seen you in nurseries with tags that say "vigorous", they should've said "relentless".  Please let this be the last year of pulling you out and untangling you from other plants.  I don't need ground covers where you are.
Now Lady Bells (adenophora) I only have myself to blame for you.  You were supposed to be a replacement for the delphiniums that refuse to grow here.  You have your tall beautiful spikes of blue flowers and you put on a pretty show every summer.  Little did I know what was happening underground as you spread up into all your neighboring plants.  You popped up through and tried to push them aside.  I tried to keep you under control and last year I finally had it.  I spent hours digging deep down and chopping you up.  Unfortunately I found out later that you sprouted from every chopped piece left in the ground.  Again I spent more time pulling every leaf and root piece up I could find.
Funny that your tag said you didn't liked to be moved, you actually seemed to love it.  So after all that work what do I find as I'm spreading compost, you're all back!
What plant do you wish would just go away?
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24 comments:

  1. At this point, honestly, about the only plants I want to get rid of are WEEDS! Dandelions, thistle, and some other one I don't know the name of (but it spreads like a son-of-a-gun by underground runners).

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  2. Ah yes, that Bishops weed. I planted my first start and now it is really taking over. It perseveres no matter what! I think I'd like maybe it, the Star of Bethleham, vinca, Houttenyia, sweet violets, and creeping spicata to disappear. Urgh. So frustrating digging it. I have the lady bells too and so far they've been okay. It's like this with plants-love them but only in certain spots then they get away from us. I should be happy I've never planted ivy or gooseneck loosestrife though. Gotta count blessings somewhere.

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  3. Hmmm let me see, Malva Zebrina I think it's called - or they call it a small Hollyhock. I have them popping up everywhere. I give them away and tell people next year you'll have 467 of 'em and they still want some cause their bloom is sooooooo pretty.
    One of the first things I bought when we got this place was a packet of Morning Glory seeds and my neighbor warned me so I threw them away although I think they are so beautiful. Well now I know about me and seeds and I needn't have worried!

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  4. When we moved here 6 yrs. ago, English ivy was everywhere; it had even grown thru the brick into the basement! Finally, we pulled up every last little bit thankfully.

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  5. My list is long at present as I am still catching up on years of not being able to garden but apart from Ground Elder and Bindweed UGH I was only thinking today that the Acanthus is so difficult to get all the roots out. I have three spots where I removed the original plant about 15 years ago and still each year I have to harvest the shoots regularly. When that bed gets a complete dig out the Acanthus still comes back I think the roots like Bindweed must go down to Australia they are so deep.

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  6. Catherine, I've never tried Bishop's weed... and you have reconfirmed the why! Ajuga is one of my pet peeves, but if I can give it a confined space, it seems to be okay. I've no experience with Lady Bells, either.

    Two plants I've considered to be self-seeding nuisances are a pink Missouri "primrose," and the white "Obedient Plant." I've pulled out the primrose, but so far the Obedient plant is staying (mostly) within its confines. There are a few little seedlings that are easily pulled each Spring.

    My anemone likes to take over the bed, also. I love the flowers, but it's an underground runner. (Slightly shady, wouldn't you say?) ;-)

    Thanks for the opportunity to complain a bit! ha.

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  7. I too planted a pretty little plant called ajuga and have tried valiantly to evict it from my garden. Relentless is the term I think fits perfectly. Great post!

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  8. My problem plant is Campanula 'Cherry Bells', which is not even my plant! My neighbor planted it on her side of the berm we share along our property line. In the first year, it had spread to about 3 feet in diameter and now it is crossing the line to intermingle with--no, that's too polite--to smother my plants. All last summer I had to keep pulling it out by the handful. It does have beautiful pink bell-shaped blooms, but I'd plant it somewhere it had room to roam, or else contain it somehow. Good luck getting rid of your lady bells, Catherine!

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  9. common dayflower. They're blue. They're pretty, and they are EVERYWHERE.

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  10. I have my own list of unwanted plants. And I've noticed that some have a weird sense of humor and certainly can't read those little tags they come with.

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  11. Cleome - aaaarrrrrgh!!

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  12. So far none really. Our yard it too new. I'm sure eventually something is going to stay around that I don't want.

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  13. I unwittingly helped my mother-in-law put several Yucca plants in the ground in her back yard. The yuccas were in 5-gallon plastic pots and were very large and rootbound. Many had even started busting big roots out through their pots - this was back before I gardened at all and didn't know about yucca. 5 years later, we had to eradicate as much as we could of it since it had become a dangerous solid mass of eye-poking spears. The yucca root clump was also threatening to assault the neighbor's fence. I used a sawz-all power tool and sliced it into chunks, leaving a stump. The stump sprouted into another big bush of yucca again! We moved without totally removing the stump and I bet it is huge again.

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  14. I don't think I really have any ornamentals I want to get rid of -- can think of many weeds I really war with though...

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  15. Oh dear, what a nightmare! So sorry you are fighting such a battle with these ones. For me, it's definitely the St. John's wort (comes back for 5+ yrs. from any part of the plant, seed, root, leaf, etc.) and the campanula that came over from the neighbors'. I bet I will be cursing the day (eventually) I let violets get into the parking strip, ditto the asters that I let run wild after planting some on purpose. Scilla is easy enough to pull out but hard to rid yourself entirely of. Oh, they do like our gardens, these unwanted plants!

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  16. I'm glad to see I'm not the only fighting unwanted plants! I wish I had the space to let them just spread, but I don't. I'm glad to see the names of other plants that you all are trying to get rid of, I'll know to avoid them too!
    Weeds, are always at the very top of the list. They just grow no matter what :)

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  17. What a great topic, Catherine. It seems most of us have gardening regrets. For me the Bishop's Weed for sure. Also a suckering plum tree. The tree is gone but the suckers are emerging again this spring. One other huge mistake I made was to allow my chives to go to seed. Still, years later I'm pulling them. And the root goes deep making it difficult to get at. Okay enough of my ranting. :)

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  18. Great topic, one we can all relate to. I have dollar weed, two or three different ferns, especially the asparagus fern, and a few other things I don't know the names of. What a pain.

    FlowerLady

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  19. Hi Catherine

    Apart from being a pain in the backside, it highlights the general lack of information with plant labelling.

    Anyway, good luck!

    Rob

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  20. lol. If they leave because you asked, let us know. I'll be outside doing a little pleading myself! I'm surprised delphiniums don't do well there? I would have thought the climate perfect??

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  21. I wonder if the chives Grace was talking about are the white blooming garlic chives. I made the mistake of letting them seed themselves all over the place in the garden where we lived before we moved here. I was so glad to get away from them! Also, even when dug out, the plants come back.

    A friend gave me some leafy spurge last year that I found out are illegal to grow. I dug them out, but see they are coming up again.

    I hope your unwanted plants give up.

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  22. Catherine, remember when I asked you for some of your Bishops Weed. (Were you laughing when you gave it to me?) :)

    Well, years later I am still "weeding" it out. Too bad my garden doesn't grow like these do!

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  23. I have a love/hate relationship with Bishop's Weed. In late July and August it looks bright and refreshing in my shade garden. But right now it obscures so many dainty shade lovers. Ajuga is much more manageable and easy to ignore. I wait till after it blooms and then pull.

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  24. Oh, you're a nice gardener, unlike me [chuckles] I mean I'd get mean with them and ten years! Wow! You're loaded with patience!

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