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Lysimachia owners - Gooseneck loosestrife

AlxNicAlxNic Posts: 259
in Plants
Good morning
Last year I bought a Lysimachia clethroides, it flowered, then one night some marauding cats had a fight over it and broke several stems. Over the winter it looked like a dead stick. I left it hoping it would grow again.

This spring I noticed several 'unknown' plants growing - they seemed to shoot up overnight. At 30 of them, I decided to dig one to see what it was. The stem goes deeper than a garden fork and they were growing from rhizomes - the 'dead' lysimachia.

I am concerned about the rate of reproduction - one or two would be fine for my smallish garden but I am wondering
a) if I chose the right lysimachia (maybe all loosestrife reproduce rapidly?)
b) if the clethroides is going to be hard to manage and will 'take over'. 

Any advice/comments/recommendations?
Thank you

Posts

  • Bee witchedBee witched Posts: 1,295
    Hello @AlexX,

    This information suggests they can be invasive ....
    https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/10629/Lysimachia-clethroides/Details

    However, its a lovely plant and it would be a shame not to grow it.
    So you could knock the bottom out of a large plastic pot .... sink it into the garden where you want your plant to stay .... and lift and replant the runners you have. 
    With luck it will make a nice clump and not stray.

    I've got several clumps of lysymachia  .... including this one ... but they are all corralled to stop them getting out of hand.

    Bee x
    image
    Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders  

    A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    edited May 2020
    Don't have any of the others, though like the look of both the Gooseneck and the Burgundy ones, but I'm currently digging out the yellow one by the barrow load!
    It's always been a bit of a runner and not my favourite plant, but last year's summer, autumn and winter were all very wet here and this year it has at least trebled its rate of growth.
    As it is a plant you want, you could try the thing of planting it in a bucket, like  people do for mint. Might not work though...
  • Alan Clark2 in LiverpoolAlan Clark2 in Liverpool Posts: 2,190
    I have L. clethroides, which only spreads slowly, but I have clay soil, which might help to restrain it.  I also have L. 'Alexander', which doesn't really spread at all.
  • AlxNicAlxNic Posts: 259
    Thanks for all the information. I remember it seemed to rain here (North Devon) from last September to recently, I suppose that may have helped. 

    I like it but have decided to dig them all up and plant one in a pot. I had a really bad experience with something I bought 6 years ago which appeared all over the garden and was a real pest .

    Thanks Alan, I will look up L Alexander
  • Rob LockwoodRob Lockwood Posts: 380
    I've built plastic barriers round both L. Clethroides and L. Punctata (the yellow one); both have filled every square inch of their "boxes" but the yellow one seems keener to escape.  I get the impression that both would take over the garden if I let them loose, very much like their mate Nummularia...
  • AlxNicAlxNic Posts: 259
    Thanks for sharing your experience, Rob. I kept one Clethroides in a pot to give me time to decide if I wanted it but the reproduction rate from 1 to over 30 in 6 months seems too high. I have since read it likes wet (tick) and clay(tick).
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited May 2020
    I had this in my Belgian garden - fertile alkaline loam over a clay subsoil and plenty of rain.  I planted 3 x 10cm pots one spring in a wee group.  It spread to several metres square but that was fine as the daffs still came up through it in spring and the flowers are intriguing with their goose neck form and a magnet for pollinators. 

    It was easy enough to dig up where I didn't want it.   Great foil for colourful hemerocallis and roses and an occasional clematis on an obelisk.  It fought a good battle for territory with Jerusalem sage - phlomis russelliana.  Neither is the best plant for a small plot tho.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Rob LockwoodRob Lockwood Posts: 380
    AlxNic said:
    Thanks for sharing your experience, Rob. I kept one Clethroides in a pot to give me time to decide if I wanted it but the reproduction rate from 1 to over 30 in 6 months seems too high. I have since read it likes wet (tick) and clay(tick).
    Yes, and a) my soil's sandy and b) both Lysimachias are in semi-shade, so if they're doing well with me, they'll love your clay.  Lovely plants if you can build a barrier, but they'll take over if you let them!
  • AlxNicAlxNic Posts: 259
    Thanks, Rob - I have one plant saved in a pot to give me time to decide. The new plants seemed to spring up overnight which unnerved me 
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