The Garden of Good and Evil Plants

A peak through old garden photos and journals made me realize that The Thugs were back. I'm talking about those extra-vigorous plants that, given an inch, will take a mile. 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.


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

The Shape of Good Things to Come

One group of plants brings in more hummingbirds, bees and other pollinators than practically anything else in our garden. It’s the genus Salvia—a group of perennials and annuals that produce flowers in red, blue, purple, violet, white and bi-colors. Their tubular flowers are well-suited to a hummingbird’s long straw-like tongue. Bees, even smaller ones, that can’t fit inside the flowers, take the easy way out by chewing a hole at the base to access nectar.

Besides the common culinary sage (also a Salvia), there are many different species. One that is particularly lovely is the new Salvia coccinea ‘‘Summer Jewel Red.’ This species is also called hummingbird sage, scarlet sage and Texas sage.

The folks at All-America Selections chose Summer Jewel Red as one of their 2011 winners. It was rated superior and above average because it flowers early (50 days from sowing seeds) and it’s covered in blooms through autumn. It works in containers and in the ground in a sunny spot with well-drained soil. Flowers are about ½ inch long on plants that reach 20” tall and 16” wide. I think this one is going to place the older standby, Lady in Red, which, for me, had a somewhat lax habit. Thanks to those hard working breeders at Takii & Co., Ltd. I’m looking forward to buying seeds at my local garden center.

I plan to pair it with blue-flowered ageratum and white sweet alyssum. Or perhaps turn it into a hot-colored container with some Gaillardia and Cosmos ‘Bright Lights.’ Or maybe I’ll put some in the 80-foot-long perennial border with prairie dropseed (Sporobolus), liatris, Coreopsis 'Zagreb', white daisies and celosia. A plant that provides this much bloom power through our northeastern Illinois summer is worth starting from seed.