The new garden is throwing up new mysteries to solve. Loads of the below dotted round suggesting they are not undesirables but wondered if anyone knew what they were?
If you are going to dig over any areas where either of these are, they will spread like mad. The celendine propagates itself by both seed and it's main method, hundreds of tiny bulblets (bulbils) each about 3mm. The the top growth dies down completely after it finishes flowering. The cuckoo pint does similar but the bulbs are larger and irregularly shaped. If you don't disturb the ground where they are they tend to only spread slowly and it will be several years before a colony grows to a couple of square feet. I have more of a love-hate relationship with them - I love them where I want them but hate them everywhere else (like where the cuckoo pint has invaded the roots of a tree peony!) Just be careful to note the areas where they are if you are doing any planting!
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
If you leave them alone they will take over. To get rid of them you have to either spray (I don't like using chemicals) or have the patience to care fully dig them up. Be careful to get out the small nodules (bulblets) attached to the roots, otherwise these will grow into new plants. You will miss some, so this procedure will have to be carried out for several years. It does get less every year.
i have spent the half of today digging celandine out out of my garden, i think it must have got imported from some clay soil i was given last year as ive never had it before but it was everywhere this year. After reading up on them i have dug around the plants and dumped them in the green bin along with the soil on my trowel, id rather buy another couple of bags of soil than dig those blighters up again! when digging up some of them, some just looked like a seedlings above ground but under the surface a a whole flipping plant was waiting to emerge. My green bin is rather heavy now but hopefully i have tackled most of it, shame it takes over so quickly as it is really pretty.
Posts
Celandine - ranunculus ficaria - pretty wild spring flower but can be invasive.
Wild arum, aka Jack in the pulpit, Cuckoo Pint, Lords & Ladies - Arum maculatum. Another wild flower, can be invasive, toxic berries in the autumn.
I love them both
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks Dove
If you are going to dig over any areas where either of these are, they will spread like mad. The celendine propagates itself by both seed and it's main method, hundreds of tiny bulblets (bulbils) each about 3mm. The the top growth dies down completely after it finishes flowering. The cuckoo pint does similar but the bulbs are larger and irregularly shaped. If you don't disturb the ground where they are they tend to only spread slowly and it will be several years before a colony grows to a couple of square feet. I have more of a love-hate relationship with them - I love them where I want them but hate them everywhere else (like where the cuckoo pint has invaded the roots of a tree peony!) Just be careful to note the areas where they are if you are doing any planting!
Cheers Bob. Good tip.
If you leave them alone they will take over. To get rid of them you have to either spray (I don't like using chemicals) or have the patience to care fully dig them up. Be careful to get out the small nodules (bulblets) attached to the roots, otherwise these will grow into new plants. You will miss some, so this procedure will have to be carried out for several years. It does get less every year.
I tried spraying the celandine, up in full force again next year. The only way is to dig it out, making sure you get every little white pip out.
Cuckoo Pint, so that's what it is! Best get digging before it gets too tangled in the roots of my beloved Exochorda.
I've rid gardens of celandine with Roundup, but it does take a couple of seasons to get rid of it all.
i have spent the half of today digging celandine out out of my garden, i think it must have got imported from some clay soil i was given last year as ive never had it before but it was everywhere this year. After reading up on them i have dug around the plants and dumped them in the green bin along with the soil on my trowel, id rather buy another couple of bags of soil than dig those blighters up again! when digging up some of them, some just looked like a seedlings above ground but under the surface a a whole flipping plant was waiting to emerge. My green bin is rather heavy now but hopefully i have tackled most of it, shame it takes over so quickly as it is really pretty.