Plants that go wild

Plants that go wild are the good ones- the ones suited to your soil and to your climate. What is a weed in one part of the world, is a prize possession elsewhere where conditions are not suited, and great care is required.

I have learnt to love the plants which are suited to my climate and conditions, and to enjoy them. And to use some control over them, if they really decide to grow in the wrong place.

Why do we want to fight all the time, why do we always want what is not suited?

I have a very old house with a wonderful cottage garden- and those plants are all my friends. If really in the wrong place- I move them, or pot them- and every year, I give lots and lots and share them around. And in the autumn, after flowering, any I don't want to seed, like golden rod for instance- I cut their heads off and bin them (not compost).

Pulmonaria, aqueligia, wild geraniums, veronicas, 6 different types of mint, and so many more. A joy.

BlueBelle! I must believe you are talking flowers and not naughty boys.

Monbretia - pull it up and it appears further along!
Ivy - I think we might have got rid of it all at last as it was growing over the wall and strangling a neighbour's plants despite regular chopping back.
Grape hyacinths.

Agapsnthus - I found some at last at the garden centre, they can take over if they like!

I planted cyclamen and they seem to spring up everywhere, including in gravel but they're delicate and pretty so I leave them.

It's odd that some plants which were prolific suddenly disappear, I've just realised that all my aquilegia had disappeared.

Oregano is a thug and will spread everywhere, all the green patches in the lawn are oregano. In the flowerbeds, everywhere!

Our Japanese anemones have spread from a plant or two to masses, encroaching well into the lawn.
Japanese anemone. I'd be ok if it was the white one but it's the pink one

Oh dear, I bought a pink one a couple of years ago, it's in a pot on the patio

I love my Japanese anemones, so lovely in late Summer/early Autumn. They’ve virtually taken over one contained corner but I don’t mind. I’ve even split them to grow elsewhere. One is light and one is dark pink.

What we call Mile-a- minuet (Russian Vine?), Horse radish roots are very hard to get out once established. We have orange poppies everywhere in the summer. I do try to gather the seed heads but always miss a few. The wild garlic I was given during lock down has spread. I suspect I will have trouble with that in future. It makes a lovely pesto.

I planted feverfew many years ago - never again!
It spreads everywhere.

In fact it's probably still there but that bed was turned into lawn so it gets chopped down before it can spread.

Oh dear, I bought a pink one a couple of years ago, it's in a pot on the patio hmm

Leave it there, Callistemon 😂

So many of my garden thugs on these lists. But I can't get alstromeria to survive more than its initial season whatever I do.

Wild strawberries are bent on world domination, too. My sister gave me a few plants 20+ years ago and they are now everywhere. And don't ever plant allium triquetrum. I dig up hundreds of them every year but they still elude me...

I don't mind the spring flowering thugs, they are such a welcome sight and their foliage tends to die back quite early.

Another one going nuts is the spider plant. I don’t mind the stripy one so much but it tends to throw out a lot of plain green ones and you can’t dig them up easily. They seem to grow on concrete. Also wild iris- very pretty but very hard to remove and it clumps up and pushes all the other plants to one side. Can a plant be described as a bully ? That one is.

Leave it there, Callistemon 😂

I thought it had shrivelled and died in the summer, despite watering, but chopped most of it out and it recovered.
It will be staying where it is unless I can find a wild area to plant it out.

Can a plant be described as a bully ? That one is

A thug!

Verbena has gone nuts in my garden as well as Alchemilla (lady’s mantle. Both very pretty but…

Ajuga!

Never accept a clump from a kind friend 😄
That's a thug.

Hardy geraniums are a real problem in my garden. We dug a lot up over the years, but back they come where you don’t expect them and even a small clump can more than double in size in the space of a summer. Aquilegia, Limanthes Douglasii, verbena bonariensus and alliums are other garden thugs here.

I like it when they spread, filling up the garden for free. The more the better. I don’t really want a contrived, regimented garden.

Contrived = controlled

I am in the process of moving to a retirement flat, so won't have this problem in future, but last year, I found purple loosestrife popping up everywhere in the garden. I have seen it, apparently under control in a herbaceous border, but thought it was basically a wild plant.

Grandma70s

I like it when they spread, filling up the garden for free. The more the better. I don’t really want a contrived, regimented garden.

Hear, hear- bravo

It’s a fine line between a natural looking, uncontrived cottage garden effect and a montbretia and agapanthus filled wilderness though. I don’t know if you imagine that those of us who like to be in control of what is where in our gardens have regimented beds of roses and begonias with bare soil between, but I’d stake anything on that not being the case!

In addition to the care instructions, when you buy plants, they should put a ‘thug warning’ on the label, so you know exactly what you’re getting.

But that depends very much on your local conditions. Agapanthus is hardly likely to run riot in Scotland or Yorkshire Dales.

Good luck with move annodomini- nearer to children?

MayBee70

Passion flower. Had one in the garden that did nothing for years: assumed it was dead. Then, one summer, it literally took over the garden. Even covered the washing line. Was a nightmare to get rid of. Pity really because the flowers are lovely.

The key is to keep an eye and deal with it, prune,, before it goes berserk. If you see it reaching the washing line, then you know you have to cut it back.

Casdon

It’s a fine line between a natural looking, uncontrived cottage garden effect and a montbretia and agapanthus filled wilderness though. I don’t know if you imagine that those of us who like to be in control of what is where in our gardens have regimented beds of roses and begonias with bare soil between, but I’d stake anything on that not being the case!

In addition to the care instructions, when you buy plants, they should put a ‘thug warning’ on the label, so you know exactly what you’re getting.

It's hard work maintaining a wild effect garden or having part of the lawn turned into a wild meadow.

I'm keeping the agapanthus in a container just in case

Fleurpepper

MayBee70

Passion flower. Had one in the garden that did nothing for years: assumed it was dead. Then, one summer, it literally took over the garden. Even covered the washing line. Was a nightmare to get rid of. Pity really because the flowers are lovely.

The key is to keep an eye and deal with it, prune,, before it goes berserk. If you see it reaching the washing line, then you know you have to cut it back.

😄 the herbs seed themselves in the cracks between the paving stones round the washing line!
They seem to grow better in the cracks than in a pot.

LOL yes, I was talking about passion flower and other such like (clematis montana comes to mind)- if you know it is a rogue- just keep an eye and deal with it as soon as. Easy peasy.