In the Garden of Good and Evil Plants

In the Garden of Good and Evil Plants

Why is it that some of the most coveted plants -- pricey heucheras (coral bells), euphorbias, sedges, hostas and other perennials -- never seem to seed? Anywhere. Many of the coral bells I’ve planted in recent years don’t even make it through our Midwest Zone 5 winters because they’ve hurled themselves out of the ground with the first few January thaws.

Strolling through our garden in late August made me realize that The Thugs were back. I'm talking about those extra-vigorous plants that, given an inch, will skip into the next county.

Bishop's weed (Aegopodium, aka goutweed), for example, which I first admired outside a little art gallery in Door County some 20 years ago, has spread in several beds. I liked the way its variegated leaves lit up the ground in a shady spot around the gallery's doorway. So I planted some in front of the yews. And then discovered that by mid-summer, the leaves had become tattered and dried out. I had to cut them all down. The yews are long gone with a home makeover, but the goutweed persists, here, there, everywhere.

Then there's Artemisia 'Limelight', a perennial that has the most delightful colors--chartreuse and green--in the spring. I planted it in a border of lime-green and merlot-colored foliage--the Lemon Lime Merlot border -- and discovered that it's quick to suffocate nearby plants.

Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea', the chartreuse leaved groundcover, has skipped out of the bed where I planted it under 'Tiger Eyes' sumac and is running willy nilly through the lawn.

There's pipevine (Artistolochia), which I pictured cloaking an arbor and attracting pipevine swallowtails to lay their eggs on it. It has crept away from the arbor and has managed to clamber 18 feet up a purple weeping beech.

And golden hops vine, Humulus, planted on a deep magenta arbor, is also sending up shoots several feet away as the trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) is doing elsewhere. (That’s not all of them, but it’s too exhausting to contemplate.)

All high maintenance plants to say the least. Pulling, cutting, cursing and, yes, chemicals, have become part of this gardener's artillery. The moral of this story is to investigate before buying (or accepting freebie plants from friends).

What thugs are growing in your garden and how have you controlled them?