Plant taking over the world!

I had a big problem with a creeping violet two years ago. I had a shoulder problem at the time and and as any gardening was causing pain I could not deal with it.

It is pretty but spreads with such a tightly meshed surface root system you could not hand weed it out and when I did get out to tackle it needed a big garden fork to get it out. This was on my very light sandy soil.

I also resorted to Glyphosate to control that and other such pervasive plants.

For such a pretty low growing plant it is viscious, do be careful of it.

Ivy stems are not too hard to saw through with a good pruning saw, but you need to do it regularly.

I too have a 'ball' buddleia, it is very pretty but not much interest to bees or butterflies.
What is it with the garden centres nowadays calling them buddleijas, this is a silly way of trying to make a common garden plant more upmarket.
I love the way they grow on the roofs of old houses.

I've recently planted a buddleia with orange globes rather than the usual spikes. Well, that's what I bought! I hope to see it blooming for the first time this summer. Love the very dark purple one but the butterflies seem to prefer the lighter purple blooms.

Well I was surprised about the budleias. I had several huge ones in our UK garden, the normal mauve one, a very deep purple and a massive white one with huge flowers- as said, not only beautiful but great with the butterflies.

I have several buddleis in my garden, they grow so easily and no they are not weeds, our local garden centre sells them for £7 at plant.
If some consider them weeds ok, but I love mine, along with my giant leylandii and rampany ivy, I love a wild garden not a copy of the local park with neat lawns and a boring flower border.

Weeds!
Himalayan balsam is rampant round here in all the verges.
Non in my garden so far.

And the butterflies! Our buddleia is covered with them sometimes in the summer.

well, Im not getting rid of my buddleia for anyone. it is so beautiful in the summer and the bees love it.

At the local French/Swiss customs there is a big poster indicating which plants are illegal to import. Of course there is japanese knotweed and Himalyan balsam, but also buddleia and solidago I was surprised.

Spreads - x

It's illegal to plant Japanese knotweed, it spreds like wildfire through a root system and almost impossible to erradicate.
I understand that it is very difficult to get a mortgage if it is on a property. x

When I sold my house I had to sign a form saying there was no Japanese Knot Weed in my garden. I was really surprised

TriciaF Dig it out and throw in the dustbin before it spreads. Do not compost it. It started in one corner of my garden and now the lawn and vegetable patch have it. I am managing to keep it under control because I constantly dig it up with a clod of earth round it and bin it, but it is a constant chore.

FlicketyB - we have wild onion here too but it isn't too invasive - yet!
As you say it looks like chives, and smells oniony.

I want some Japanese knotweed, anyone got some, pm me if you have and I will buy it. I will plant it in gardens of people I cant stand and wait till they are overgrown and are struggling to cut it back. Joking!

Grass.
Very popular in our borders.

I have cooked and eaten it without problem. I have googled thoroughly and I am pretty sure it is called wild onion. I do not know anyone else who has it or anything similar.

Sorry- do you know if it is edible. Will look it up now. We still have about 50cm of snow- so nothing growing ;)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.