Saturday, January 3, 2015

One's Treasure is someone else's weed



Rereading Margery Fish, a garden writer most active in the 1960s, I was struck how plants can behave differently from one garden to the next. Plants she describes as invasive are not so here, and some I finds invasive she does not. As she puts it: "one can only speak from one's own experience in the gardens one knows". Lysimachia Clethroides, with its shepherd's crook white flowers, was a menace in our previous garden, but M. Fish finds it does not spread much.

Lysimachia Clethroides and Morning Glory



Margery Fish rarely describes plants as invasive. She talks about them as she would of  friends. They might have their faults, but invasive is probably too rude an epithet to use. Instead of being invasive a plant is "far too friendly",  "has a seeding habit a little trying", "I would love (it) more if it didn't wander so far afield", "somewhat too obliging with their thrusting white roots", have a "habit of popping up in the most unexpected places" and, as she would say of an acquaintance she did not particularly like: "I should not miss it very much if it walked out one day" (it has been my experience though that it is always the wrong plants that walk out on you!).


Campanula rapunculoides

Some plants are invasive in just about every garden. Only with tireless efforts are you going to get rid of the attractive Campanula rapunculoides, described by Reginald Farrer as the "most insatiable and irrepressible of beautiful weeds". According to Margery Fish, the only way to get rid of it is to dig up the soil where it grows and burn that soil!

However, still in the campanula species, she describes C. alliariifolia as providing "an occasional seedling". I also grow it, and I like its "long spires of hanging cream bells which get smaller as they climb". However at Roche Fleurie there is no occasional seedling, but dozens and dozens that need to be pulled out each spring, and this, many years after I got rid of the mother plants.

Campanula alliariifolia is the white bellflower in the middle -  I don't have any good pictures of it. As is usual with plants I finds invasive. I take for granted I have numerous pictures of them and I don't.
At East Lambrook Manor where Margery Fish gardened, she describes the Milky Bellflower (Campanula lactiflora) as "seeding itself freely". I have never had a single seedling from this plant come up in this garden or our previous one.



Milky Bellflower

Some plants might be invasive generally, but not in your garden because of specific conditions. For instance, I can see that Rose of Sharon, Hypericum calycinum, runs wild in most situations. However, we grow it in a very tight spot between a low stone wall and the paved path where there is great difficulty for it to expand. Besides, Rose of Sharon is border-line hardy for our area, which must contribute to keep it in check.



Rose of Sharon

Sometimes, a plant simply does not like your garden even when that same plant is weedy in most places. This is the case for us of Corydalis lutea. It self seeds with abandon in the gardens of most of our neighbours, but does not survive for long in ours. It is also the case of Kenilworth Ivy (Cymbalaria muralis) which manages to survive here, but not vigorously.

Kenilworth Ivy

Even what is invasive can change with time. My friend Gwen had to lead a constant battle against Honesty (Lunaria) and Johny Jump Ups (Viola tricolor). Both plants have now more or less disappeared from her garden!

I am sure all of you have plants that are, as Margery would have put it, "far too friendly" but are rather shy in other gardens (and vice versa).




25 comments:

  1. My neighbour has way too many friendly plants for my liking! Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis - I wish it knew when it out stayed its welcome!s.
    I have never heard the name Johny Jump Ups before, it must a local one with you Alain.

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  2. Hi Angie,
    I see in Wikipedia that Johny Jump Up is the North American common name. It is interesting how a name you think everyone uses turns out not to be known in some places.
    As for Lily of the Valley, it fits this post perfectly. It is often very invasive. It was one of the worst pests in our previous garden but it won't grow here! I have moved it in three times but it has always died within a few weeks.

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  3. Morning glory was the pernicious perennial in my old garden. Binder weed, my mom called it, as she helped me extricate yards and yards of roots. I have no idea where it came from. When it slithered around to the other side of the house I dug out the flower gardens completely and then sold the house. I wonder where it came up for the new owner.

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  4. I have been trying to establish Japanese anemones, without success, although everyone tells me they are dreadfully invasive. Perhaps they will sneak up on me when my back is turned, but they show no sign whatsoever of doing it yet.

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    1. I must say that they do spread here, at least the unidentified pink cultivar we are growing.

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  5. Good thoughts. We have a lot more plants that don't thrive than the ones who thrive too much! Though we now have Valerian and purple Coneflowers sprouting up everywhere!

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  6. Lysimachia clethroides promptly died on me, Lysimachia ephemerum is slowly spreading but Lysimachia cillata Firecracker is a Menace and gets dug out everytime I see its leaves!
    Margery Fish's garden is only an hour away so we pay plenty of visits when I need inspiration.

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    1. L. ciliata was also a menace in our old garden (I am not sure it was 'Firecracker' - the foliage was copper colour). Here it is in a ditch where it survives (despite a lot of competition).

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  7. Margery Fish was one of the main influences on me when I started gardening, at that time I used to get her books from the local library but funnily enough I have had it in the back of my mind to read them again for a while now so maybe your well timed post will push me to actually doing it. I did a post a while ago about "thugs" which included the likes of Lysimachia 'Firecracker' and Hypericum but the Kenilworth Ivy was not included although it grows quite well on a high stone wall opposite my house, I do not have it. How I wish I could grow your weeds (wild flowers) like the Trilliums in your last post.

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    1. I picked up Gardening in the Shade by M.F. in a second-hand shop here. That is where the quotations come from. Victoria is not a big city but it has the best used bookstore in Canada - by a long shot. Just in the gardening section, there are a few thousand titles.

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  8. I've not noticed any campanula lactifoila seedlings either but it bulks up well. Kenilworth ivy on the other hand is a prize pest. I thought the phrase "somewhat too obliging with their thrusting white roots" may be referring to it. I think there are three types if invaders - those we welcome and encourage tio spread, those that are uninvited but easily controlled and then those that elbow their way in pushing everyone else aside, dominatte and cannot be removed however tough you get.

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    1. Actually, the thrusting white roots refers to achillea ptarmica 'The Pearl' or Achillea sibirica Perry's white (she says she doesn't see any difference between the two). I do have The Pearl but it does not spread much here.
      Your way to divide invaders in interesting - you should write a post about it.

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  9. I'm curious as to whether Ms Fish's comment about the "thrusting white roots" refers to Chinese Lantern plants; they can really scamper around my friend Grace's garden each summer.
    My understanding of "invasive" was a plant with no natural enemies that harms the environment, not simply one that spoils a gardener's aesthetic goal. Will have to keep this second meaning in mind from now on.
    Janet / Dandyknife

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    1. Hi Janet,
      In my experience Chinese Lantern does not simply have roots that are too obliging. To use Sue's expression above, I would say it is a prize pest! It came on its own in our old garden and I was careful not to bring it here. I am sure though that there are some gardens where it won't really grow.

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  10. So true! I've discovered a few Campanula rapunculoides volunteering in my garden and pulled them out by the roots--I'm hoping they won't spread much, but I know most gardeners say they can be awful. Conversely, many people consider Liatris of various species to be a difficult, invasive plant. I have it growing in a contained area, however, between the patio and a rock wall, so it's under control. Great topic for a post!

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    1. I have never managed to grow Liatris. I always thought it was difficult! I should try again. As for the campanula, I think it gets carried unwittingly by bits of roots in plants we move or get from friends. I certainly did not bring it here but I have it in two places.

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  11. No one has mentioned the bete noir of my former garden, Forget-Me-Nots (Mysotis). They seeded everywhere. Cutting down the flowers did little to stop them, and though I like the blue in Spring, they are a pest.
    I also have here a Trumpet Vine (Campsis) planted by the former owner to cover a pergola. It now has roots running all the way under a paved patio. under a paved driveway and yards under my perennial beds. Digging it all up is not an option so I have to cut the sprouts off a ground level continually. Such a pest.

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    1. Hi Helen - nice to hear from you. Happy 2015!
      Forget-Me-Nots do selfseed but they are easy to pull out. I would not do without them. But with Trumpet Vine now you are talking major league. There was an old one in our previous garden. First I thought it was so beautiful and it was, covered with blooms for 2 months, but the suckers! 100s would come up in flowerbeds, in the paths, everywhere. In the lawn it was not bad as you just mowed them. I know exactly what you mean! As you say, there is no way you can pull them up. You just snip and a couple of new ones quickly replace the one you just removed!

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  12. Hello Alain and how true is what you have discussed here ... one gardener's weed is another's favorite child ? haha .. Labrador violets can be aggressive but for the most part I love them and let them run .. when I am not happy with a greedy plant I just pull them either to control them or get rid of them .. so far it never annoys me all that much.
    Right now with a long winter staring me down I would not mind seeing anything in the garden !LOL
    I actually want to plant Chinese Lanterns in a pot for Autumn decorations ... I hope I can find some this year.
    Joy : )

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    1. A pot would be the right place for Chinese Lanterns. They look very good in fruit. It is a pity you do not know someone who has a patch. They would no doubt be quite ready to give you some!!!
      I also have Labrador violets but they do not spread much. They are nice for shade.

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  13. It's true, Alain, some plants may be invasive depending on a climate. For example you write about Rose of Sharon. Here it is grown in pots, never in a soil so it's not a weed. Opposite Vinca is very invasive in our climate and I fight against it every summer.

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  14. Hi Alain - I enjoyed this post although I was smiling wryly as I read it. Margery Fish was one of the first gardening authors I came across. She sung the praises of lamium galeobodon variegatum. Bewitched I sought it high and low, eventually planted it and have been waging war against it ever since. Interesting to hear you mention 'Kenilworth Ivy' as I've not heard the name before knowing the plant as ivy leaved toadflax :)

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  15. I think Margery had a tendency to minimize the "invasiveness" of plants. In the book I was reading she says: "Connoiseurs are inclined to look down on ornithogalums as...very invasive but I have never found them a nuisance". I have never grown Star of Bethlehem as I have seen more than one garden where it was a terrible weed. Of course there is a possibility that it was not the case at East Lambrook Manor.

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  16. I call them Johnny-Jump-Ups too. My grandparents, from Scotland, called them that years and years ago, when they had a nice drift of them. Nice to think about gardening this time of year Alain! Which Margery Fish book do you have?

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    1. I think I have A Flower for Every Day and I know I have We Made a Garden (I am not sure because in February March we are not at home but we house sit for some friends in Kitchener). However when I wrote this post I had just finished Gardening in the Shade. She is always fun to read talking of plants as if they were old friends.

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