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Stubborn Weed
Michaelhope1991
Posts: 5
Hi everyone,
I hope you can help in a problem my family have had for a while! In the front garden, in a small corner of it, there is a weed that has been there for as long as I can remember. It's in a relatively shady part of the garden at the top of a slope.
I tried digging up all the bulbs (some of which were maybe 4-5 inches down in the soil) last autumn but they have come back! Can you help identify this plant and attempt to help find a way of getting rid of it?
Thanks for your help!
0
Posts
What colour are the flowers?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Dovefromabove - green, but when they die it goes to a stringy brown colour.
Like in the pictures
Looks like Geranium pratense to me, a commonly-cultivated perennial with last year's decayed growth.
I am sure it is a Geranium but not sure which. Geranium do not grow from bulbs though.
Why do you want to get rid of it?
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I too think it's one of the hardy geraniums, which is why I asked about flower colour - if given a little bit of attention they can be very useful ground cover plants, providing a bit of colour and keeping weeds at bay.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Punkdoc - My mum has attempted to get rid of them for years and years. My mistake about bulbs though, I've just had a look and they are root-based. A mix of quite thick ones (a few mm's thick) and a lot of small ones. A lot of the dead parts I've been able to pull out with a forky shovel type thing (sorry for not knowing proper names, I'm strictly amateur)
Michaelhope1991, I don't want to hijack the thread but as hardy geraniums have been mentioned could I ask how they compare to the pics below?
I have had so many of these to dig up with root bases that both my arms go round. While the flower is fine, they seem to take over the garden and don't allow anything else to grow (they have had 10 years peace in which to establish themselves.
If anyone has information..... thank you
Indeed, I love hardy geraniums but some of them can really take over. The dark phaeum I am trying to eradicate as it just smothers everything else in the garden. There are well behaved ones, which grow in neat hummocks and are delightful - ask when you buy or get given, does it spread? If people offer you huge clumps of 'lovely blue geraniums', ask yourself why??!!
AlexX, yours looks like Bloody Cranesbill - an appropriate name in your case! It's a different leaf to the one the OP is asking about.
The usual "thug" is Geranium x endressii, which has pink flowers and is very vigorous. I don't know of a geranium with green flowers.
Thanks for the information. I am going to post separately so I don't mess with Michaelhope1991's request