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Rogue plant taking over garden!
Angloaussie
Posts: 5
Hello, I am a novice gardener and moved to a new home in March. One particular plant (possibly a weed?) in my new garden is very prolific and is taking over all the flower beds. I have attached a photo, and would be very grateful if anyone could help identify it and suggest ways to eradicate it or at least halt the spread. Many thanks for any help you can offer, best wishes Angloaussie.
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Posts
Thanks for your comment Patsy. Does anyone else have any advice please?
I don't understand why people haven't picked up this thread. Usually people are very helpful in these situations. I recognise it in that I have it too but I don't know what it is. I just pull it up. Some people will recommend glyphosate. I try not to use herbicides. I would suggest a hoe.
I thinks a few more pics from different angles might help. and some more info.
what are the roots like? are they spreading out and growing by root or is it seeding everywhere and creating new plants. You can tell by digging one up. If you can dig one up it tells us a lot. If you have to dig some (as opposed to one) up, it's a root spreader. An indication of size would help as well and any other features such as smell, hairyness. Anything really
I saw this one go by and I didn't immediately recognise it but expected that someone else would. Maybe everyone else thought the same
In the sticks near Peterborough
It looks to be some sort of wildflower, right off the bat. Is it relatively new in your garden? have you seen any signs of flowering?
Hello everyone, and thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my post. I have had a closer look at the rogue plant this evening and uploaded some more photos.
I have had a go at digging some of the plant up, but was unsuccessful. Older stems are quite woody although not difficult to cut with secateurs. It is my impression that it is spreading via the roots rather than seeding - although the fact that there are patches of it all over the garden seems to indicate the opposite. It hasn't flowered and neither (as far as I can tell) is it producing any fruit or seeds. It is growing as much as 1/2 metre high.
What I have done this evening is cut a patch of it down to about 1/4 of its height and spray the remainder with weedkiller containing glyphosphate - apologies to thos of you who don't agree with such things, but the situation is so extreme that I don't feel I've got any other option at this stage. I figured if I cut the plant down a bit the weedkiller would progress through the plant to the roots more quickly.
One other thing, the weedkiller I'm using has a concentration of 7.2gl (presenting as 9.7gl) glyphosphate, does this sound sufficient or would a stronger solution be recommended to get rid of a plant like this?
Thank you again for helping out, AA
Wrong assessment of how glyphosate works Angloaussie. The more leaf it has to work on, the better it works. Use it in the concentration recommended on the bottle.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Your rouge plant appears to be phlox, an extremely pretty flowering perennial. It can be thinned out by lifting and splitting. Its a mainstay plant in my garden.
Must be my eyes
I still can't see it clearly
In the sticks near Peterborough
Looks like phlox to me too - one of those really useful plants, usually reliable and of little interest to slugs and snails.
Lift the ones you don't want in the autumn, pot them up and give them to friends
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.