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Gardening

Why on earth would anyone plant.....

(57 Posts)
Commonground Sun 05-Jul-26 16:59:38

Acanthus - today's battle.
Russian (mile-a-minute) vine - last week's battle.
Bamboo- fortunately not a problem in my current garden.

Ilovedogs22 Sat 11-Jul-26 19:59:01

Oh, M0nica, that sounds dreadful!
My particular Japanese Anemone is very passive. It was perfectly polite in my old town front garden & now its out-in the shady back garden in the suburbs & has hardly spread it's petals in more than 20 flipping years alas! Obviously a timid, cautious late- developing sort! 🙃

M0nica Sat 11-Jul-26 19:04:07

Ilovedogs22

What an interesting topic. I wish my Japanese Anemones would live a little and become rather more adventurous & promiscuous!
I had 3 but now I have just the one! Its still lovely though & the white petals are the purest of whites, beautiful. One day it might spread it's wings a little or I could move it to a shadier spot, if I dare!

Beware what you wish for. We bought a house with an untended garden last year where Japanese anemone ran riot.

It got between a cement plinth running along the side of our property and the house wall. It split the plinth away and rain got in between plinth and house walls causing damp problems inside and that has left us with an expensive repair job, and endlessly digging up the great woody rhysomes. We have dug up at least one dustbin's worth and I dig more up every week.

Gwyllt Sat 11-Jul-26 18:36:02

Nothing worse than the wild variety of monbretia
Interestingly for those who hate pampas’s grass. We interested more clumps than I have couteted Having hacked it right back and it is done regularly it surprising how many people have said positive things.

HelterSkelter1 Fri 10-Jul-26 13:42:05

Vinca and green alkanet. They have got to go. G Alkanet is coming up eveeywhere.

25Avalon Fri 10-Jul-26 13:33:12

Rampant honeysuckle. It didn’t flower so I cut it right back to get rid of it. Instead it has grown all over my rockery and is actually flowering. It has put roots down everywhere and is growing up through plants. Today I have been cutting it as low as I can inside a large Hebe and ripping it out. I have a sore spot on my finger now - awwww! The revenge of the Honeysuckle.

midgey Tue 07-Jul-26 20:51:15

I remember my mother planting Japanese knotweed……early sixties. Luckily it didn’t like damp/wet mid Wales!

nanna8 Tue 07-Jul-26 14:08:50

Tradescantia and ginger lilies are the scourge of our garden. I dug up the corms of the lilies but missed a small one- they’re back. Plus arum lilies, just spring up everywhere.

pen50 Tue 07-Jul-26 13:59:03

Grape hyacinths and next door's bl***y leylandii hedge.

Granatlast007 Tue 07-Jul-26 13:46:48

Bamboo is very pretty and makes a good screen, you just plant it in a large pot and preferably choose a non spreading type.

Casdon Tue 07-Jul-26 13:20:12

So do I merlotgran, the rain also makes the leaves sparkle. Each to their own, though alchemilla mollis is easily controlled if you shear the flowers off before it goes to seed.

I agree about ivy, I spend hours pulling it off the walls in my garden, it causes real damage if you don’t.

merlotgran Tue 07-Jul-26 11:48:42

I love alchemical mollis. It’s great for flower arrangements. It doesn’t self seed in my garden which is a shame. I wish it did.

Septimia Tue 07-Jul-26 10:56:15

Alchemilla mollis - I think it's boring but it sneaks in everywhere.

We had Japanese anemones in the garden when I was a child, but they didn't seem to spread.

NotSpaghetti Tue 07-Jul-26 10:53:41

Last year I actually bought two - a pink and a white Japanese anemone.

No sign of either.

The other thing that people say "takes over" - Californian poppies- don't seem to like my garden either!

Namsnanny Tue 07-Jul-26 10:52:08

I have tried to grow Japanese Anemone, Bamboo, Russian vine, all have died.
Grape hyacinths have survived, but don't flower well. The most successful 'plant' in our garden is bramble which gets into tjw roots of our rambling and climbing roses and is never fully eradicated. Ivy is the next invasive problem

NotSpaghetti Tue 07-Jul-26 10:50:56

I have transplanted my mother-in-law's pretty Japanese Anemones three times and they have vanished

Ilovedogs22 Tue 07-Jul-26 10:32:52

What an interesting topic. I wish my Japanese Anemones would live a little and become rather more adventurous & promiscuous!
I had 3 but now I have just the one! Its still lovely though & the white petals are the purest of whites, beautiful. One day it might spread it's wings a little or I could move it to a shadier spot, if I dare!

Elusivebutterfly Tue 07-Jul-26 09:51:03

I find ivy is the worst. This is my third house where it has spread from neighbours. At my last house I spent more time cutting back the ivy spreading from the garden behind me than any other garden task.
I also planted vinca, not realising it would spread so much and overwhelm plants nearby. I am now struggling to get rid of it.

25Avalon Tue 07-Jul-26 08:49:48

Ajuga. Just found it spreading like wildfire across my rockery. Also in cracks in the pavement.

Grammaretto Tue 07-Jul-26 08:05:58

NotSpaghetti. I think the swingers and the pampas got old and died. There were so many rumours when we first came to this town 46 years ago. 😅

NotSpaghetti Tue 07-Jul-26 06:07:06

Most pampas grass in our notorious 1960/70 Swingers estate has gone now.

...but we all want to know, have the "swingers" gone too??.

Grammaretto Tue 07-Jul-26 06:05:49

M0nica 😯
Most pampas grass in our notorious 1960/70 Swingers estate has gone now.

I planted a Russian vine to climb over a weeping ash. i know, bad idea
It was easy enough to get rid of I cut it at the base. The ash has died now .

Grape hyacinth
Knapweed

M0nica Tue 07-Jul-26 03:12:29

We only planted it because we had bought a house on a new estate and chatting to our new neighbour, mentioned that we intended to plant a tree in our front garden. Within 24 hours he had planted the tree he had in mind to plant in his garden in a place that made our planned tree unfeasible. So we planted a pampas grass instead.

NotSpaghetti Mon 06-Jul-26 21:16:47

M0nica
grin

M0nica Mon 06-Jul-26 21:15:11

We planted a pampas grass in our garden years ago. I do not think I even knew about swinger parties in the 1970s. We certainly wouldn't have wanted to have any involvement, no matter how tangential.

Greyduster Mon 06-Jul-26 15:54:53

Eryngium Alpinum. Striking plant but you’ll never get rid of it. Comes up all over the place.