Talkback: Invasion of the golden hop - Talkback

29/06/2009 at 14:48

I have a Golden hop and I love it. I butcher it every year right to the ground and it comes back beautifully. The more freedom it gets, the more it demands.

Gardeners' World Web User

30/06/2009 at 09:18

A golden hop has just been planted at the back of a church garden I help care for. i already know how much cutting back the four-year-old one in the botanic garden needs so will be prepared for hectic pruning. Golden hops themselves mke lovely flower arrangements and decorations when dried so perhaps the answer is to use them. After all, the best way to stop a plant being a weed is to find a use for it, especially if it is commercially viable.

Gardeners' World Web User

30/06/2009 at 11:27

I wondered why my brother in law gave me a rooted cutting from his.... He muttered something about having a garage under there once! So far it has died down in the winter and resprouted the next year - this being the second season in the ground. Will it carry on doing that?

Gardeners' World Web User

30/06/2009 at 11:43

My next door neighbour planted a golden hop about16 years ago and it sulked for 2 years and refused to grow.She dug it up, passed it over the fence to me and I planted it literally only two feet from its original position but now north facing instead of south. It romped away and swiftly covered an aviary as I intended.It gets chopped back every winter and repeats its job every spring.Wonderful nesting site for Robins.

Gardeners' World Web User

03/07/2009 at 01:31

I am invaded year after year from a triffid from over the railway bank it strangles every thing in site and forces itself through my greenhouse breaking the glass and strangling everything in site, nothing kills it, 35 years it's been my night mare.why would you plant it in the first place.

Gardeners' World Web User

03/07/2009 at 19:24

I love my golden hop - and it is easy to cut back. I am told the young shoots can be treated like asparagus but haven't tried that yet. Has any one?

Gardeners' World Web User

07/07/2009 at 18:54

I have a Glden hop planted against the East facing wall of a garage. It is only in it's second season and already taking over the space ( I do cut it bak ) I have noticed this year that it has been descimated by something like black fly. The leaves are absolutely smothered in a black sludge like substance! Prior to this every hop I have ever had starts as a beautiful healthy specimen and then gets attacked by something hta eats holes in the leaves.......any advice!

Gardeners' World Web User

29/07/2009 at 22:05

Damn, that sound's so easy if you think about it.

Gardeners' World Web User

03/08/2009 at 12:26

Reply to Kerstin-Alfonso: I've experienced exactly the same this summer. Greenfly or some sort of aphid has been sucking away at sap under the leaves, and the residue falling onto leaves below attracts sooty mould. This black mould spreads over the leaves, and I find they eventually turn crisp and dry. They look dreadful, so I cut off what I can in the hope of encouraging new growth. It's too late to spray once the problem occurs, and to be honest I prefer to garden organically and so do not spray to kill aphids.

Gardeners' World Web User

27/06/2010 at 14:29

The people who live at the back of us (20 years after we moved in backing onto orchard) have planted a really invasive hop. It is now climbing all over our cypress tree (yeah, I know, but it's home to loads of birds and was planted as a windbreak because we live in East Anglia!). It has now climbed over our honeysuckle, our bamboo and our clematis, and it ABSOLUTELY STINKS. It is not pretty, and its owners don't control it. I've tried to kill it before it strangles our tree, clematis, etc. all of which were planted before they built the wretched estate. AND before it has tried to strangle our neighbour's mirabelle plum tree. What would you hop loving people suggest? By the way, it's climbing all over their larchlap fence, so I expect that will rot soon as well.Good! It's a disgusting plant.

Gardeners' World Web User

27/06/2010 at 15:08

I forgot to say -before I get shot down by hop lovers everywhere, the people who live over the back with this wretched hop are chavs, so not much conversation there, until they asked us to cut down our cypress because it shut out their light - guess what - they're trying to sell their house at a vastly inflated price. BUT our tree was there LONG before their house was even a property magnate's dream. PLUS when we said we can't at the moment, because of the birds nesting in it, assured us that they were members of the RSPB - just like us! B-locks! We'd already checked about our cypress, and, because it has been in situ since 1980, it's so much older than their house. SO it is entitled to be there. And it is a haven for birds. Oh, and before we have the cypress-haters jumping on the bandwagon, it is cut back every year, WHEN THE BIRDS HAVE FLOWN THEIR NESTS. In the meantime, that stinking hop just grows and grows and grows. So no change there then.

Gardeners' World Web User

17/09/2011 at 18:47

my hop for the first time in about fifteen years has no flowers, therefore no deocorations this year. Anyone out there whose hop has suddenly decided not to flower this year

Gardeners' World Web User

28/11/2011 at 18:38

I have a golden hop which was planted 4 years ago to the left of my front door and every year comes up a wonderful green colour and spreads upwards and then left and right covering almost the entire front of my house (from just one plant!). Just as the hops start to turn, they get cut off and used as decorations round the tops of my kitchen cupboards or into church for decoration. The only downside is the bristle bits on the plant and the tidying up when cutting back at the end of the season otherwise a recommended plant if you have the space and are willing to let it go!

Lesley 4

03/04/2012 at 14:10

How much growth will a new rhizome make in its first year?

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