artjak I am so with you on Valerian I spent a long time last year clearing my front garden and still it comes up. The worst is the neighbours both sides have a bit so I'm always pulling up tiny little seedlings. It grows to gigantic proportions and the roots have disloged paving stones. It is pretty (I too love the white version) but if I never saw any again I wouldn't cry.
This is my front garden 4 years ago, courtesy of google maps. As you can, red valerian everywhere! Unfortunately, due to a change of circumstance, the front only got worse until last year when I cut everything down and weeded out a ton of red valerian, brambles and other assorted delights. My front now looks like this:
When I moved here there were some aquilegia. They looked nice and I noticed they were quite expensive to buy in the garden centre so I thought they must be OK. They are not! They're all over the place and I'm removing them all now.
I bought a horseradish plant from a village fair, and a friend saw it sitting in it's pot on the patio. She told me it goes mad so I panicked and burned it so I didn't have any problems.
I'm glad I read this thread. We need to cover a lot of steep bank with something and were initially thinking of vinca major. Then we heard that was a bit manic so thought vinca minor would be OK. From your experience it seems not. I think we'll now go with plan b) heather. The park home site next door has planted a heap of vinca one-or-the-other. Will have to see if it comes over.
I'm trying hard to cultivate lily of the valley because I love the smell, and we had some where I lived as a kid. That garden was about 12' square though and not in much danger of being inundated. If I do succeed (it's not going well) what am I letting myself in for?
My lily of the valley is quite well behaved. One patch of it is being smothered by the previously mentioned variegated ground elder. The elder is definately winning.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
In a previous house we had a low growing hypericum on a bank, it looked great, but the bank was limited by the drive on one side and a path on the other.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
The worst thing I ever bought was a packet of seeds of mixed cottage garden perennials. At the time, I did not realise that cottage garden plants are usually rampant spreaders, since this is why they could be shared freely with all the other cottagers. My garden is now infested with dead nettle, which spreads by underground runners and is almost as bad as bindweed to get rid of.
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I have a deep pink valerian that has seeded in my stone terrace, but I love it! Just as well there are plants for every taste
Busy L, keep an eye on it!
artjak I am so with you on Valerian I spent a long time last year clearing my front garden and still it comes up. The worst is the neighbours both sides have a bit so I'm always pulling up tiny little seedlings. It grows to gigantic proportions and the roots have disloged paving stones. It is pretty (I too love the white version) but if I never saw any again I wouldn't cry.
This is my front garden 4 years ago, courtesy of google maps. As you can, red valerian everywhere! Unfortunately, due to a change of circumstance, the front only got worse until last year when I cut everything down and weeded out a ton of red valerian, brambles and other assorted delights. My front now looks like this:
I do love weeding.
Daisy, it looks very smart now
When I moved here there were some aquilegia. They looked nice and I noticed they were quite expensive to buy in the garden centre so I thought they must be OK. They are not! They're all over the place and I'm removing them all now.
I bought a horseradish plant from a village fair, and a friend saw it sitting in it's pot on the patio. She told me it goes mad so I panicked and burned it so I didn't have any problems.
I'm glad I read this thread. We need to cover a lot of steep bank with something and were initially thinking of vinca major. Then we heard that was a bit manic so thought vinca minor would be OK. From your experience it seems not. I think we'll now go with plan b) heather. The park home site next door has planted a heap of vinca one-or-the-other. Will have to see if it comes over.
I'm trying hard to cultivate lily of the valley because I love the smell, and we had some where I lived as a kid. That garden was about 12' square though and not in much danger of being inundated. If I do succeed (it's not going well) what am I letting myself in for?
Thanks artjak, more stuff planted today
My lily of the valley is quite well behaved. One patch of it is being smothered by the previously mentioned variegated ground elder. The elder is definately winning.
In a previous house we had a low growing hypericum on a bank, it looked great, but the bank was limited by the drive on one side and a path on the other.
The worst thing I ever bought was a packet of seeds of mixed cottage garden perennials. At the time, I did not realise that cottage garden plants are usually rampant spreaders, since this is why they could be shared freely with all the other cottagers. My garden is now infested with dead nettle, which spreads by underground runners and is almost as bad as bindweed to get rid of.