Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to the discussion which followed our recent blog ‘Oh I wish I hadn’t planted that’. We certainly opened a Pandora’s box of woe about plants that had taken over, seeded everywhere, or were impossible to dig out.
So we thought we should pull together a compendium of the miscreants to serve as a cautionary note to others, especially those just starting out on their gardening lives, so that they can benefit from the hindsight of others
The list is divided into herbaceous perennials, bamboos, annuals and biennials, damp loving plants, climbers and herbs .
Herbaceous plants. Chief candidate here was bear’s breeches, or Acanthus spp which we all agreed was lovely but almost impossible to remove once it had got its feet under the table. The perennial cornflower Centaurea montane got pretty bad press as well, as did various species of Lysimachia, loosestife, but the most vitriol seemed to aimed at soapwort, Saponaria spp which take hold through creeping underground rhizomes. Various other plants that we and our readers have a love/hate relationship with because of their wandering rootstock include Macleaya, (plume poppy), Japanese anemones, Romneya, (tree poppy) and Alstroemeria. Herbaceous perennials with a tricky self-seeding habit include the bulb Nectaroscordum siculum, Perovskia, Althea cannabina and the hardy geranium ‘Wargrave Pink’.
Bamboos. The main message with bamboos seemed to be to check whether your species is a clumper or a runner, and if it was the latter, stick rigidly to a rigourness annual maintainence schedule to keep it under control. Digging out a recalcitrant bamboo is no fun at all.
Annuals and biennials. And so to the self-seeders…. The Eryngium ‘Miss Willmott’s Ghost’ seems to live up to its name and haunt a
Damp-loving plants. Damp situations seem to encourage some serious predators. Houttynia spp really shouldn’t be allowed near a bog
Climbers. We all know a few rampant climbers like Clematis montana can out-grow there allotted space but through this blog we also learnt that many of you are fed up with the chocolate vine, Akebia quinata which not only rockets skyward, but creeps around at ground level too. A new clematis, ‘My Angel’ appears to come with a health warning, and perennial sweet peas seem best to be grown outside your herbaceous borders where their foliage can smother their neighbours in late summer.
Herbs. If you want a neat tidy herb patch, beware of planting anything in the borage family; the annual borage itself, comfrey or the dreaded green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens). We all know that mint can spread but so too can lemon balm, tansy and origanum.
The only plant from our original list that I am not including here is Rosa rugosa, suggested by Caroline, because as the rest of us know, it is in fact a wonderful
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12 replies on “Beware of these plants!”
Thank you for ‘wish I hadn’t planted that’ article. I agree with the comments about Sapinaria and Briza but find they are easy to remove just take a little time.
For me the real horror is Arum italicum marmotatum. It is impossible to find all the baby tubers when you try digging it out.
Hi Susan, thanks for writing in. You’re right, any spreaders that come from a bulb or a tuber are particularly tricky to deal with – you find that you’ve never actually got the last one, don’t you! I do have this Arum in my garden and like so many of these troublesome plants, it’s actually a nice and often-commented-on plant. It’s lovely as a patch in semi-shade with its intriguing-variegated and lined foliage. Beautiful in a little vase indoors too. But then you see it popping in several other places, and you suddenly love it a lot less…..Good luck in your battle with it, all the best, Elaine
Maybe not so many Latin names and more photos might be a good idea.
I was none the wiser about which plants to avoid after reading this.
Hello Patricia, sorry that you’re having a job to visualise some of these problem plants. There were images of nine of the plants in the original blog we wrote on this topic ‘Oh I wish I hadn’t planted that!’ which might help you a bit (and the link to this blog is at the bottom of this one above). I just added a few photos of the more unusual ones that had come up in the ensuing discussions to this post. Re the Latin names I’m afraid I am very keen on using these as they are unique and beyond confusion (a plant will often have several different common names but only ever one Latin one) but I do try to mention its most used common name alongside its more scientific one, but sometimes forget, so apologies for this. Best wishes Laura
Latin names every time for me…..
Me too Angela – I’m actually pretty hopeless at knowing what the common names are, and if you get to grips a bit with what the scientific names translate as, you can actually learn quite a bit about the plant in question’s characteristics. Best wishes Laura
Love Oenothera strictly. We watch the petals unfurl at around 8-9 in the evening. Visitors are entranced by this bit of botanical magic!
Hi Janet, it is a very pretty thing, isn’t it! I have to say that I really enjoyed the typo (caused by spellchecker, no doubt) in your comment which turned ‘stricta’ into ‘strictly’, because those unfurling petals are very like a dancer’s shimmering dress, aren’t they! thank you so much for writing in, all the best, Elaine
I would like to add the Tree of Heaven. My neighhbour has some of these and they keep on self seeding into our garden. “Tree of Hell” I prefer to call it!
Ah, I have heard from others about this tree, Sarah! It sounds so delightful, doesn’t it, but it’s a highly invasive, non-native species, and you are not even allowed to sell it any more. Not only does it spread from suckers everywhere it’s not wanted but you must be careful when handling it because it can cause nasty skin irritation in both people and pets. Tree of Hell indeed! Thank you very much for writing in with this nasty, all the best, Elaine
Re “Beware of these plants”
Gallium odoratum (sweet woodruff) is a nuisance. It was in the garden when we moved here over 20 years ago and it is still here. It is surface rooting and will spread everywhere unless checked. It gets into shrub roots and is virtually impossible to remove.
Hello David, thanks for the heads up on this woodlander. I’m always a bit wary of anything that is purported to be ‘good ground cover’ and it sounds like caution is best exercised with the innocuous-sounding ‘sweet woodruff’ ! Best wishes Laura