Posts
Bishop's weed (left) and Artemisia 'Limelight' (right).
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 and discovered that it's quick to suffocate nearby plants.
Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea', the lime-colored 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 planted on a purple arbor—also sending up shoots several feet away as the trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) is doing elsewhere.
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?
—Nina Koziol
Sweet Annie Artemisia. Luckily, they pull very easily out of the ground. I finally controlled it by disposing of the plants with all the millions of seed heads in the fall rather than the spring. I leave a few behind because I still like the plant. It was even sprouting half a block down the road, in the edge of the street, where the seeds were washed away with the rain. Also, Northern Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium which is much harder to pull the roots out of the soil - they really dig in! And, of course, Lemon Balm along with - believe it or not - Echinacea and Rudbeckia since I am not in the habit of continuous deadheading. I like to leave the seeds for the birds but many get scattered and sprout all around the yard.
ReplyDelete