Help! What's strangling my aquilegia and a question about lupins?
Hi all,
a few few months ago some of you kindly identified my aquilegia as I didn't know what it was.
Since then it has grown and flowered but it also is being taken over by some sort of climber! Which has big ivy shaped leaves....its growing really vigourously and has now jumped across to the iris!
Anyone know what it is? There are some purple flowers but I'm not sure which plant they are from....also not sure if the star shaped things at top are buds of climber or seed heads from acquilegia!
the aquilegia was a present from a friend who moved house and I'm guessing she must of dug the climber up with it....unless it's a weed!
whats the best way of sorting it out as I'm worried it will take over!
lastly are you supposed to deadhead lupins? I grew these from seed last year and I'm really pleased with them but I think I am in need of general tips on garden design as I plonked them at the front of the bed which I started from scratch and they are hiding everything else!
Thanks in advance




Posts
Can't comment on the lupins, but the climber is bindweed, famous for strangling plants
Those lupins are lovely, and I quite like tall plants coming forward occasionally in the border - looks less regimented like that. Yes, deadhead the lupins when the flowers fade. Also your Bearded iris, I'd deadhead them too.
Panda's right - that's bindweed - remember the leaves and if it reappears next year you'll weed it out before it starts strangling plants.
As for now I would carefully try to disentangle it from your plants, and cut it down, then get some Roundup Gel and apply it to the remaining bindweed leaves and leave it to go brown and die - it'll take a couple of weeks, but when the leaves are brown it'll indicate that the roots are dead too.
If you try to pull it up before it's dead every little bit of root left in the soil will grow into a new plant.
The purple flower is your aquilegia
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Oh dear! Do you think I will be able to dig up aquilegia and separate it or is it best to chuck the lot!
Great advice thanks dove and will deadhead the iris too!
This is my way with bindweed - If you can disentangle it, do so and lay it out on some layers of newspaper or something like that. Then (following the safety advice on the bottle) you can spray it with glyphosate very easily and thoroughly without affecting nearby plants/the lawn. Let the weedkiller completely dry before removing the papers, and placing the bindweed back in the border where you should let it slowly die.
If you can't disentangle it, you can spray in situ one leaf at a time (in calm still weather) using a bit of cardboard to protect your plants. The odd drop of glyphosate won't hurt them much (wash it off if this happens).
When the bindweed is dead (a couple of weeks or so) you can remove it.
Hi Cidermill
What lovely lupins, Dove gives good advice, just wanted to add that the spiky four lobed pods which may be what you refer to as star shaped things are indeed aquilegia seed heads and as they are rampant self seeders, unless you want aquilegias everywhere I suggest you deadhead them before they burst open. Good luck with eradicating the bindweed!
i know it sounds daft,but do i cut the whole flower off the lupins or just pull out the little flowers when they go brown, i know iam ,not really clued up on lupins.
Cut the whole stem of the lupins back to where they emerge from the leaves.
I've been reasonably successful at getting rid of rampant bindweed by untangling as much as I can, stuffing it into a plastic bag and spraying copious amounts of round up into the bag. I then tie the bag up with string and leave the whole lot where it is until the contents go brown. Last year I left one bag full which was sprouting from the middle of a large thorny shrub for most of the summer and so far this it hasn't reappeared.
By the way, i wear gloves when I'm doing the spraying.
Good idea Dyers. Worth mentioning the gloves too.