Not only you Philippa, I’ve spent hours over the years digging them out, you have to be quick or they disappear👹, I get so annoyed if I get a clump out and some of the bulbs drop back, I have to get them all out, and I am winning, I will never surrender 😀 a few is nice, but not when the choke everything else.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I take them out in my regular weeding regime, and have settled on one method. I always use a two-pronged garden fork (bit like a hand tine), loosen up the soil a bit without distrurbing it or overturning it. I try to get the plant out - more often than not it will come out with bulbils attached. Whatever the result - I push the soil back the way it was without further disturbing it. If some bulbils break off, they are generally left where they were and are not brought to the surface. Later in spring when the soils becomes to dry and hard (I'm on clay) I just pull of leaves to weaken it. So far this approach works pretty well.
There are 2 subgroups of lesser celandines. The first forms larger rosettes of leaves and flowers and contain the bulblets, the second is smaller and has fewer leaves and no bulblets. I make an effort to thin mine out using the 2 pronged fork attach!
The smaller ones are just waiting to grow their bulbs whist you’re not looking. They are self seeded ones. I try, if I can’t dig the out to make sure they don’t flower.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
@Lyn I use this system, reasoning that a small bulbil is better left deep in the soil where it has to invest a lot of energy getting something to the surface, rather than risking bringing it closer to the surface, where it could get a headstart on me much more easily. Well whatever makes me sleep at night!
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a few is nice, but not when the choke everything else.
I make an effort to thin mine out using the 2 pronged fork attach!
See how easily swayed I am?