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Invasive plants to avoid

VerdunVerdun Posts: 23,348
Often we don't know which plants will become invasive, do we? I grew artemisia limelight many years ago but, luckily, I noticed its tendency to invade v quickly and removed it inside 3 months. It still took 2 years though to eradicate it totally. Euphorbia griffithi, lysimachia firecracker , houttynia chameleon and Japanese anemones are similar. Anybody else had such "ground cover" plants to warn us about? If suspicious about new plants I check root systems in pots looking for signs of being invasive....agastaches, for example, I am unsure about
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  • BookertooBookertoo Posts: 1,306

    Depends I suppose what you mean by invasive? I love my lysimachia firecracker, yes it does spread, but it easily enough removed where you don't want it. Lily of the valley gets everywhere, but who could object to that? Well, I guess some folk might.  The invasiveness also varies from garden to garden, I have trouble getting japanese anemones to grow at all, never mind become a problem, whereas my friend a couple of miles away finds them a dreadful pest. Artemesia limelight is a pain, but others are Ok, it used to turn up in hanging baskets but not so much now I'm glad to say.  After all, Japanese knotweed was introduced as an ornamental plant - a message to ponder maybe.  One mans invasive pest is another persons joy and delight - maybe some of my hardy geraniums might be considered as invasive - what a delight!

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    Saponaria officinalis is a real thug. and I wish Lysimachia Firecrackere WAS easy to remove. I have been trying to get rid of it from one area for 4 years now, digging it out and putting Weedkiller on every time there is a new leaf showing.

    Campanula takesimana is a seed weed of the first order, deasd head it assiduously.

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    Forgot another one, Solidago, that also seeds itself everywhere if not cut down.

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    Another seed weed, if allowed is Knautia macedonica and as for Aquilegias.................I have decided that I am removing every plant of this as I can no longer keep up with the weeding. One missed seed head and the place is crawling witrh them again. And before the 'I love them brigade' jump on me, the seedlings are small flowered nondescript wishy washy coloured things.

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    Now Alstromeiria do not survive in our garden, too cold we think.

    Another set of plants to plant with caution are any of the perennial Helianthus. They can spread widely if suited.

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,064

    I'm fortunate in that my aquilegia Guiness or Magpie produce like babies and I get decent colours in the back garden where i've planted other forms.   I have japanese anemone very happy in one part of the garden but struggling in another where i'd really like it to spread. 

    Lysimachias I'm picky with.  I've recently planted an orange flowered sister of lysimachia Firecracker that I'd be happy to have make itself at home but I don't like the yellow flowers on purple foliage of Firecracker itself nor the thuggish green leaved form with yellow flowers.    I really like lysimachia alba clethorides which is very happy in my garden and would like some of the Amethyst version.

    Phlomis Russelliana is getting just a bit too happy so I'll be clearing some of that and not giving it away to unsuspecting gardeners even though it does look fab when it stays where i want it in my border.   I have a plain pink geranium and a paheum which are spreading a bit too far and wide but am happy for Rozanne, Johnsons's Blue, a white form and macrorhizum to spread where they like.

    I've been given alchemilla mollis to full some of the gaps in my borders after more losses last winter.  I'll be cutting off those flowers with due diligence.

     

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • BookertooBookertoo Posts: 1,306

    Yes, I find geranium phaeum a real thug, trying to get rid of as much as possible of that, had forgotten that one!

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