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A Cautionary Tale .....

Sue HighamSue Higham Posts: 85
I expect it will be too late for many who have succumbed to the charms of Schizostylis, the Kaffir Lily, but if you have one in a pot, my advice is to leave it there and don't plant it in the open ground. The flowers are very beautiful and I used to value it as it bloomed in November - but it's run riot through my lavender, paeonies and roses. I filled 4 trugs full of unwanted shoots in February but the roots are very brittle and each bit left behind has grown tentacles, with small rhizomes too. It's worse than couch grass!!!
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  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    It sure am. And even if you buy the lovely white form it soon dies off and you end up with the red one...........................everywhere.

  • BookertooBookertoo Posts: 1,306

    Yet I struggle to grow that in any shape or form!!

     I bought a very nice shrub some years ago, cannot recall its name, it has very divided pinnate leaves and trusses of fine white flowers - and it is a thug par excellance!! I am forever pulling unwanted bits out of the garden,  it has runners that must be yards and yards long.no warning on the label of course, which is long since lost so I can't even tell people what to be warned about. 

  • SwissSueSwissSue Posts: 1,447

    Yes, defiinitely bamboo! Didn't know it was the spreading type and took over the whole of the back of our pond, turned up 5 meters away in the lawn, up drains etc. Took over a year to kill it and are still digging out the roots!image

  • Variegated ground elder - it just loves my warm, free-draining raised bed.image

    Tomorrow it's going to have a lovely drink..........of glyphosate!!!imageimage

    Thanks for the warning about Shizostylis, I've just noticed that there are a lot of smaller leaves round the plant - obviously putting on their running shoes......

  • Sue HighamSue Higham Posts: 85
    Yes ... they really know how to get us, don't they - hook, line and sinker!



    The other FAVOURITE, FAVOURITE, fruit of mine which I've had to eliminate is autumn fruiting raspberry - I'm heartbroken but "Such an easy plant to grow - doesn't need the framework and maintenance that summer varieties do" .... Yeah, right! I think it's in a secret society with bamboo!

    In process of re-configuring veggie garden and am opting for summer raspberries instead - swapping one kind of 'maintenance' for another!
  • Lupin 1Lupin 1 Posts: 8,916

    As a kid my parent's grew raspberries. So:

    R on your cornflakes / porridge

    R with icecream

    R in pies with apple

    R on rice pudding

    R on a plate

    R with every damn thing everyday... as well as having to pick them image

    40 years later I don't mind the odd one or two.

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    I think the worse thing is looking at a Nursery stall at a Plant Hunter's Fair and seeing things on sale for staggering prices, that I have just spent hours digging up and composting since they are such thugs. I mean Sorbaria Sem or Hieracium maculatum or Anemone japonica or Geranium Roxanne and indeed all its brothers and sisters. I could add a few dozen more to the list too.

  • SalinoSalino Posts: 1,609

    ..I caution anyone planting English Bluebells in their garden... once you've got them you'll never get rid... they seed everywhere as might be expected.... a glory of woodland but in small modern town gardens... you'll soon tire of them...they don't look right...

  • Tropical SamTropical Sam Posts: 1,488

    Crocosmia. Pleasant but gosh it grows. Found it in the lawn, coming up gravel paths, miwed up in pots. Good thing I like the green leaves and yellow-orange 0r red flowers.

  • Bronze Fennel. If you grow it for goodness sakes don't let it seed. It's a B******r to get rid of as it has a real thug of a root.

    The other one is Carex Comans Bronze. Bought one about 8 yrs ago, still pulling out the offspring.

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