I have a strip I started digging out but the cold weather stopped that so I'm waiting to finish.

Do seeds of doubt count?

Al

Seeds of destruction

Liriope Big blue is still coming out everywhere

sedumzz said: Oh my god, Liriope kept coming back. It is still not completely. gone. Did I mention oethoneura speciosa? It gets everywhere and is hard to remove.

Oh Yes! I had my battle with Mexican evening primrose! Thankfully, it was easy to pull and finally got it eradicated. It's a shame it is so invasive, because it is beautiful.
AKA from Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
Oenothera speciosa is a species in the Oenothera (evening primrose) family known by several common names, including pinkladies, pink evening primrose, showy evening primrose, Mexican primrose, amapola, and buttercups (not to be confused with true buttercups in the genus Ranunculus).

I think the evening primroses would be good for steep hills. Here it grows wild in ditches and on the sides of the road.

I did not plant it, the previous owner did - mint. Took me several years to get rid of it. Started by pulling and digging it out - did not work. Then resorted to spray - worked a little but not enough. Finally, I got hold of some heavy flexible vinyl and covered the bed up to smother it - that finally worked.

gardenfish said: I think the evening primroses would be good for steep hills. Here it grows wild in ditches and on the sides of the road.

Evening primrose would be beautiful on a steep hill!! Wish I had a hill for it because I did love it. It just spreads way too fast and furious for any spot in my garden.

I'm glad that worked. I've always used an organic smother, which enhances the soil while it kills unwanted plants.

I didn't plant dollar weed (Hydrocotyle) but did ignore it, thinking it was cute when it first showed up. I should have asked around. I'm sure the first reply would have been, "You're not from around here, are you?" When I realized what it intended to do, how it grows in an unmowed area, it was too late. I've had to abandon several spots until I can gather enough organic matter to get rid of it - without buying mulch. Tricky.

A persistent question; mad runners and rabid seeders. Then, of course, there's those that will just not stay alive. Latter, recently met a fellow gardener who parallels my own experiences with lupins. Have never got a lupin to live for more than three years in our garden.

That's two years longer than me, Charlie. My Aunt was always successful with Lupines. She lived about 30 minutes from me, but her back yard was hilly with outcroppings and adjacent woods.

It's funny how regional plant tendencies can be. There are plenty of plants I find a nuisance which others have to pamper to grow (I yank hundreds of red bud seedlings every year!). But I can't grow most campanulas which others complain are too aggressive. My 'most annoying plant' award changes from year to year - currently my greatest annoyance is Italian arum. It is one of the plants I most regret planting. The variegated foliage looked great in the catalog (30 years ago) but it is now absolutely everywhere - in every garden bed, in the woods, even trying to grow in the lawn. It's almost impossible to dig out. I can't smother it, since it's so imbedded in the midst of every garden bed. I've lately resorted to shearing off as many leaves as possible to try starving it of photosynthesis but that has resulted in each sheared leaf being replaced by a gazillion little leaflets. Exasperating.

I did not plant this but it was in the garden when I moved into the house. It is snow-on-the-mountain (Bishop's weed/gout weed). Sure, it looks pretty with its variegated leaves but it is everywhere. It seems that when I try to remove them I get more. They flower and when I dig the plant out the seeds drop and more plants grow. They are everywhere ~ roots wrapping around plants I do not want to disturb. They have even escaped from my yard and are now growing on the grass outside so I just go over them with the lawnmower but I gotta find a sure fire way to get them out of the flower garden.

It looks like a lot of work to get rid of Bishop's weed.
https://extension.umaine.edu/g...

Previous owner planted Muscari along the front of the house and periwinkle on every slope and bank around the house. I weeded, dug and got rid of most of the Muscari this week and yet when I was planting pansies in that bed yesterday and today, I found loads more hair-like Muscari coming up. I transplanted some of it to a slope where it can spread at will, if it survives the deer. Last Fall I dug out one slope of periwinkle to create a new daylily bed; I'm sure bits of it will continue to come back until I manage to dig it all out. It's pretty in the early Spring when it's loaded with pale blue blossoms, but it has choked out every other plant the previous owner put in those areas and it looks dreadful in the Winter. I am slowly working on eradicating it as many places as possible. Spraying with Round-up only gets the foliage, really doesn't kill the whole plant. There are areas where it would not be safe for the pets to spray a stronger weed killer and those will have to be dug out. There are many other ground covers, some of which are other members' least favorite "mistakes", I would rather have than periwinkle!!!

Like someone said, it's all regional. Neighbor planted Snow on the Mountain in a small ravine between our homes. A lot of shade due to the trees, it has barely grown in the 20 years it has been there.

My mom planted Bishop's Weed as a border around flower beds 60 years ago. She only finally got rid of it two years ago when she paid a landscaper to dig it out, reduce the size of her flower bed and replant with less invasive plants. My brother is still pulling it out occasionally.

I hadn't heard of Italian arum, so was looking it up and found it on the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden's "dirty dozen" plant list.
https://www.lewisginter.org/it...

Glad I don't have Italian arum or snow-on-the-mountain.

I am still dealing with the Japanese anemone 'Prinz Heinrich' that I planted around 2008. Thought I could eradicate it, but last year decided that I may let it go for awhile and get rid of the variegated liriope that I really don't care for.

2010 pic.


2022 pic.

Just pulled up some Muscari yesterday... it's a long slow battle.

Donna, my dirty little secret is that I like periwinkle.
I have at least 4 different kinds. My fave is vinca illumination:

I also have vinca alba:

vinca atropurpurea:

And the regular vinca minor that you are talking about.

I intersperse them so the groundcover blooms multicolored. In theory. Will find out this year.

There are more I want.
Like silver and gold:
https://www.gardendebut.com/pl...
Or 24 Carat:
https://www.plantdelights.com/...

But nowhere to put them.
Still, I will be trying to thin the ones I do have out in a week or 2 to make room for a daylily bed. I think I will use a raised bed to make it easier for me. But I may be right back here making the same complaints you are making.