Plant taking over the world!

bamboo
Anyone got a couple of pandas who would like some?

Ivy here too, we have it on the dividing fence and its brilliant at keeping the garden private and for the nesting robins and wrens but I have to be really brutal and cut it back twice a year or it takes over. OH wants to poison it and get rid and put a nice new fence up but the poor birds will miss it , we've had baby robins and wrens most years and its the highlight of Spring/Early Summer waiting for them to fledge..

Everything. Phloxes, asters, acanthus, bamboo, lilac, any suckering shrub, all become complete menaces. We have a very loose sandy soil, which has been well-looked after over the years, so everything gallops through it and becomes a pest. Every seedling takes. It has been a revelation - plant a Himalayan honeysuckle in one area and it will seed in another 20 metres away. Not just one, a whole cluster and not where a bird is likely to have dropped it.

Well, the good news is that ivy is s hugely useful source of food for many birds and for bees too- especially when other plants are not in flower.
Several studies have also shown that trees are not damaged by being encircled with ivy. But yes- you do have to keep on top of it- or else.

The bane of my life is ground ivy in the borders- I did try to dig most of it out before I planted the many plants I'd brought over from UK- but did not have enough time- and it is a total pain. It is edible, so will try to cook it next year;)

I don't mind Himalayan honeysuckle, (Leycesteria formosa) it's the Himalayan Balsam that drives me crazy. It seeds everywhere but at least it's fairly easy to yank out unlike Fenland nettles that have spreading roots, sting like a taser and of course where you get nettles you get docks

Granjura ivy certainly harbours lots of insects for birds to eat. Last time I cut some back they all came out to defend their territory.

We have a problem with purslane in our veg. patch and it has invaded most gardens around here. Evidently you can eat it, but not in such big quantities.
But the worst by far is wild bramble - I hate it!

Perennial/shrub fuchsia !!

It was under the dining room window but despite severe pruning each year by summer it would virtually obscure the window. DH transplanted it (no mean feat) to the bottom of the garden after dividing it. We now have triffid and 'son of triffid' which is actually the larger plant now.

I agree that the ivy is a wonderful habitat and we certainly have a wide variety in the garden. But it is the creeping along that annoys me!
I find a bit, pull it and yards and years of the suff appears! Cutting it back also holds dangers, as the little bits root and grow unless completely cleared.

I like Himalayan Balsam, sorry! Not in the garden, but lovely along the roadside. Apparently removing the flower heads before they seed keeps it under control!

x

Brambles. We are forever cutting them back. In the Autumn the fruit is lovely, but the Postman has a fight with them along the path he uses to the letterbox.

A particularly invasive pink geranium. It's pretty enough, but it smothers less robust plants like penstemmons which have completely disappeared from my garden.

Himalyan balsam is indeed very pretty, but a total menace when it takes over. In the French Alps, I've seen whole waterways absolutely and totally clogged up and suffocated by it- nothing else survives, worse than Japanse Knotweed.

The fruits from the Ivy was just loved by balckbirds and thrushes in our UK garden.

From the RHS website re ivy:

When to tolerate ivy

On most trees that are in sound health and are not being grown for their attractive bark, ivy can be allowed to grow on the trunk without concern for the tree's health or vigour
Ivy is not a parasite like mistletoe and does not penetrate a tree's bark or roots; the short, root-like growths which form along climbing stems are for support only. Its own root system below ground supplies it with water and nutrients and is unlikely to be strongly competitive with the trees on which it is growing. It is also found mainly on established or mature trees where, unlike young trees, some competition can be tolerated
Ivy has much wildlife value. As ground cover in woodland, ivy greatly lessens the effect of frost, enabling birds and woodland creatures to forage in leaf litter during bitter spells. Growing on trees, it provides hiding, roosting, hibernating and nesting places for various animals, birds and insects (including butterflies), particularly during the winter months and in areas where there are few other evergreens. The arboreal form is also an invaluable late nectar source for many pollinating insects

Thanks for that Granjura. It certainly makes me feel less guilty about not having a perfectly tidy and trained garden!
I also have the pink geranium and find them useful for ' bald bits'. They are quite easy to remove as seedlings. X

I love that bit about ivy and trees. In our old house we had a small tree growing between our garden and the next, and it was overlapping the fence which was covered in ivy. One day I took the shears to the ivy, cut it all back of the fence and trees. An hour later our neighbour was knocking on the door, the tree had collapsed!

We have those pink geraniums (cranesbill) and blue ones too. Got them from my parents' garden in Switzerland and took them to the UK- to 3 different gardens- friends and family have inherited loads and we brought some back here when we moved! They are so easy to control though, and very soft on the hands with secateurs- so no trouble at all. I always Chelsea chop about half before the flower- in order to extend the flowering season- works brilliantly. Also got white with grey veining, much taller fuchsia coloured ones, with very dark centre, and the 'widow' ones, with a lovely dark veined leaf and almost brown flowers. Again, I Chelsea chop so there are always some in flower.

Ivy's natural predator is me with my secateurs. After the next dry spell we will have to have an enormous bonfire (checking first for hedgehogs etc.) as we have masses of stuff waiting. There is still lots of ivy in the garden for the birds.

Buddleia spreads all over. There are lots of seedlings at the moment in between the paving flags.
Fortunately we like butterflies, and the main plant is useful for the butterfly count in the summer.
I am always looking for a new geranium that I haven't seen before. My husband and I used to collect geraniums, so we have a lot, and have left a lot behind at various houses.

In our old house we had an air raid shelter. I planted a small ivy and before long it had taken over the entire building. It grows when you're not looking.

The plague of my garden is something called, I think, wild onion. It looks like chives, with long thin leaves but smells like garlic. It started in one corner of the garden and has spread everywhere. When I dig it up it often has little bulblets clustered round a central bulblet.

Whenever I see it I dig it up with a large clump of earth to get all the bulblets and put it in the dustbin. I have never once let it flower, but that makes no difference. It has spread into the lawn and everywhere.

Nobody else local seems to have this invasive plant and I so wish I didn't!

Wild garlic you mean- with a white flower when opened. Lots of recipes us wild garlic- I make wild garlic pesto- delish. But yes, it does need controlling.

Campanula grows everywhere in my garden,spreads over pebbles tries to climb against the wall but it is so pretty I let it flower during the summer then just rip it out. I would hate to be without it but it does take some controlling.

Must say I am getting more and more tolerant in my garden. We always want what we can't have, and don't want what we can .... What is a prize flower in the UK is a total weed and menace elsewhere- and so on. Glad to see too that gardening magazines and 'gurus' are also becoming less rigid in approach.

One lovely plant I have in the garden is borage- vivid blue star shaped flowers, wonderful to decorate salads and taboulé, with yellow and oragne marigolds. But the seed heads explode and send seeds everywhere- I just pull them up if they end up in an inconvenient place. Same with aqualegia- they hybridise and I have every shade and some double bonnets- love them- but if they get out of hand, just pull them up and give to neighbours and friends. I raise quite a bit of money for charity by doing a plant exchange every late Spring.

granjura Not wild garlic or ransoms. That has wide leaves and is at its best in June. What I have is a plant known as wild onion, allium canadienses, or something similar and it is popping up all over my garden already, it seems to grow all year round.