[Sue Deacon]

I thought I would start a new thread and share a cautionary tale or two.

Last year I bought two plants of Lady's Bedstraw, Galium odoratum. I grew it in my garden in England, where it did OK, but never went wild. However it REALLY likes the spot where I planted it (either side of the path in the Japanese garden) and went totally doolally! It is everywhere! A couple of weeks ago I dug it up - or tried to, and planted some up in large pots, on one side of the path and a plastic lined hole on the other side. I had to dig up a couple of ferns and other plants and tease out the roots. It took all afternoon.

Today I noticed it growing out from out of the rocks around the waterfall and around one of the ferns. I have been picking this stuff out of the beds for weeks now and while I was working I thought I would start this thread. You see it is not just couch grass, bindweed and ground elder that present a problem in the garden. There are other, more desirable, plants that can outlive their welcome.

Gardener's Garters or Phalaris arundinacea is another plant that has to be kept in check, though not as brittle as Lady's Bedstraw it can still be a pest growing through less vigorous plants. Yet another plant with similar traits is Lysimachia 'Firecracker'. This also has to be confined or it romps off down the border smothering everything in it's path!

You might ask why do I bother with such plants? It's easy, they are very pretty and are good 'doers' in poor situations.

The final thug for this post is wood millet, Milium effusum Aureum This grass just glows in dark corners but it self seeds like there is no tomorrow. However it is relatively easy to pull out of the ground while still small - just don't let it get a hold!

And don't say you haven't been warned!

Now, over to you. Any other garden worthy thugs out there?

[kindredspirit]

All plants that grow in water are thugs.

Worst thug in the garden is Sedum "Spirit". There are NO limits to its ambitions.

[Sue Deacon]

If you mean pond plants, the only thug in my pond is duckweed! Everything else is just chugging along. Good Guy gave me a cutting of bog bean. It is just hanging in there. The one I had in England had to be hacked out of the pond twice a year! I thought it worth it though.

Ah yes sedum..... I have no problem with that because I never introduced it into my garden. But a friend had some growing on a flat roof extension to her house (not on purpose). The roof sprang a leak and she had to have it replaced. The builders were not that careful about removing the old roof and now the sedum is EVERYWHERE.

[Greengage]

Acanthus mollis, Japanese anemone, Hedera helix, Lonicera japonica, Monbretia, Gunnera, Buddlia all lovely on their own but never stay put unless you are ruthless.

[Margo]

My one big mistake years ago was when I was on holiday in Cornwall and saw what I thought was white bluebells in the hedgerows so I pinched half a dozen bulbs. I took them home to my house in Kent and planted them and was so excited when they bloomed the following year. When we left and moved here my garden had been completely invaded by 3 cornered leek. I'll never do that again

[Sue Deacon]

That'll larne yer!

[Margo]

I know we always learn. Every time we see them around the OH says oh look do you want to stop and get some. Hes bruised all over