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Hedge Woundwort - tolerate or eradicate?

Marcs DadMarcs Dad Posts: 25
in Problem solving
For the second year and despite digging up roots (or so I thought) this plant has returned again this year in my border, and spreading. I'm forever pulling up shoots, which do seem to come up quite easily together with shallow sitting roots, but it is a losing battle. If I do nothing, they grow, flower, attract many species of wildlife from bees to butterflies and does down at the end of the season. It's not the most fragrant of plant, in fact, it stinks! There is just so much of it that I feel I would like to control and contain it, if possible. Any ideas? 
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Posts

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I’ve got a load of it as well, I can’t stand the smell of it, it has to come out. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I don't like the idea of eradicating anything so I  pull it out when  I see it but I don't seek and destroy.
    Agree. It stinks in a rotten meaty way.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Marcs DadMarcs Dad Posts: 25
    Hi Lyn, it's good to know that I'm not alone with it. I guess that even though it's a shame for the wildlife, I'll have to find a more cultivated attraction for them and dig deep to get this removed! Thanks for coming back to me :-)
  • Marcs DadMarcs Dad Posts: 25
    Hi B3, that is what I have been doing. Likely I should continue as I have been doing by pulling it up as I see it and dig over the bed once it's died down. Many thanks
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    The problem is with these wild flowers is that they attract a certain type of moth who don’t use anything else.  I too feel guilty but I really can’t stand it. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    If you pull fairly gently, you can get the runner. If you jerk it, you tend to get only the stem in your hand.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Marcs DadMarcs Dad Posts: 25
    Was your moth, the 'Hawkmoth' Lyn, that's what I found started visiting, but never thought it could be the Hedge Woundwort attracting it!
  • Marcs DadMarcs Dad Posts: 25
    Your right B3, that's the way I have been doing it, and preferably before they flower
  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,054
    I've always called that bee balm, which I now discover is something else altogether! But the bees love it anyway.
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    I must try a moth trap. I would like to see hawkmoths.  I certainly have plenty of hedge woundwort. Mainly it is at the back of the border by the hedge, and other stuff hides it most of the time.
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