HELP Grape Hyacinth

My mum had both grape hyacinths and Lily of the valley but I don't remember them being invasive, now meadow sweet, that is horrendously invasive as I found out to my cost. It destroyed my herb bed.

I assiduously dig up grape hyacinths, they were taking over the garden. After digging out as many clumps as possible, I have since been going round in the autumn/winter when they first stick leaves out and digging up any I see before they can flower and when other plants are dormant or cut right back.

The one thing I do not do, is dispose of them on site. Clumps get taken to the tip, odd ones get put in with the food waste for anaroebic digestion to make make gas to be fed into the mains or converted to electricity. But never on the compost heap.

I love the deep blue of grape hyacinths although the leaves are untidy. After years of trying to grow things which wouldn’t thrive here I’ve learned to enjoy the self-seeders and the spreaders. There are dozens of plants I’d love to grow but can’t. Instead I have waves of grape hyacinths, forget-me-nots, aquilegas, love-in-a-mist, marigolds and hollyhocks. Proper cottage garden.

I love my grape hyacinths too, even though they pop up in unexpected places as well as where I originally had them. Part of their charm for me.

I love them so long as they are in their rightful place. On the banks and in the wilder parts of my garden (of which there are quite a lot these days)

Aquilegia has totally taken over my garden. Tried digging it up but makes no difference.

Echium Pininana! (I may well have spelt that wrongly). Beware! It's a wonderful plant. We bought one. Just the one. And planted it in the front garden in a spot where nothing much grows as it's a very dry, hot spot and it's nearly all sub soil. It grew. In it second year it flowered as per the lable and passers by stopped to admire it as it passed the first floor windows. The bees loved it. Then while we were away on holiday it went to seed. Everywhere! We've allowed three to grow and potted up a couple of dozen to sell on a charity stall. There's plenty more, and they're still coming! And not just in our garden either, our neighbours are not happy!

I thought it would be grape hyacinth causing problems.
I have dealt harshly with mine.

The other really nasty garden plant is a type of violet. As pretty as it might be this one puts out a web of very tough small roots that make the ground really difficult to even get a garden fork in.

I now get rid of it as soon as I see it.

The smaller varieties of alliums are also very invasive. Spent yesterday trying to eradicate them from my rock garden and inadvertently dug up my precious snakeshead fritillaries ?! I now have some muscari in a pot, and must remember not to let them go into the garden when they outgrow the pot!

I'm going to grow grape hyacinths in pots in future. Our fen soil is high in nitrogen and I'm fed up with large clumps of foliage and no flowers. I've already started feeding everything with Phostrogen to get a better balance of nutrients.

So far so good, I am in year 3 of my campaign. First year dug them out in great clumps, put in a large bucket and took them to the tip. Second year went round digging smaller re-occuring clumps with a trowel disposing as before. Year 3, hoed the leaves away as soon as I saw them so that bulbs had no time to build themselves out. Year 4 |(this year) I will repeat year 3. I am hoping to starve the remaining bulbs to death.

I had a very unpleasant garlicy plant that suddenly appeared from nowhere across my garden about 10 years ago. I piloted this method on them and while they have not completely disappeared I now just dig up any I find (with a surrounding ball of soil) I rarely dig up more than a couple of dozen a year now.

They're taking over my garden too! I have been carefully digging up clumps but find the mass of small bulbs that fall off can be very hard to retrieve. Yesterday I bought a cheap sieve ( cooking type) from the poundshop and plan in future to carefully sieve the surrounding soil after removing a clump. I will beat the little beggars but a pot or two to be strategically placed sounds a great idea. They are pretty as long as it's not mostly leaves.

So sad, they are a wonderful source of nectar for bees and butterflies in early season, and I love them. Why on earth would you wish to get rid?

And if you do want to get rid- why not give them to those who want them, rather than take to tip? Sad.

Rather like forget-me-not I love the splash of blue/purple they bring in amongst the yellow of Spring daffodils.
A weed is only a plant in the wrong place!

Beware of accepting any plants from friends or neighbours,it usually means that they are prolific "spreaders".I also seemed to have a knack of choosing plants that spread like h**l.

I also love grape hyacinths and have never found them to be spreaders. Although, it is obviously up to conditions.
I’ve given my SIL ( in Surrey) a variety of plants which were well behaved in my garden, only for her to say they had invaded her garden.
I do love the plants that self seed in places wher they are happy. Shabby chic, is my garden style!

Same here J52 - and I just love exchanges- so perhaps I can bring over a few things next time we drive over, and perhaps take a few back
I think I hve become a much more tolerant gardener over the years, and shabby chic really suits this 16C mountain Vicarage garden.

My best memory of grape hyacinths is from a trip to Assisi- we walked on the top of a local mountain, and the limestone was pure soft pink, and the meadows covered with poets narcissi (another favourite and they still grow wild in some parts of the Jura) and grape hyacinths- pale blue with a dark 'hat' - wonderful. Got some white ones the other day and planted them out near the kitchen door.