Garden Thugs

We all have planted a nice looking perennial only to regret it when we discover how quickly it has taken over the entire garden today on Southern Gardening. 

Plants that spread quickly are often called invasive or aggressive.  There is a difference.  Invasive plants want to escape your garden and take over.  Aggressive plants only want to take over your garden. 

Here are three garden thugs looking for landscapes to take over. 

For me it was Silver Queen Artemisia, with its textured blue-gray foliage.  Silver Queen spreads via underground rhizomes.  The plant can be 30 inches tall and shades or squeezes out other slower growing perennials.  Silver Queen is easily pull after a good rain or chopped out with your trusty spade.  Try planting in a plastic container buried in the ground to contain the rhizomes.  Experiment with instead the less aggressive Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’

Chameleon plant, or Hoo –TY – nee – ah, is a ground cover that has very attractive yellow, green, and red variegated foliage.  Chameleon plant spreads by rhizomes, stolons, and seed.  physical removal by digging or planting in a buried container are your control options.  For a less aggressive alternative try ‘Burgundy glow’ Ajuga. 

Creeping Jenny, or Lysimachia, can give you fits unless it is controlled.  It wiggles it’s way between and into other perennials and turfgrasses.  I tried to contain creeping jenny in a planting bed between driveways.  The creeping jenny would grow and spread out over the concrete.  Lamium ‘Beedham’s White’ is a less aggressive alternative. 

Knowing how an aggressive plant grows can help you to enjoy it via the strategy of contain and control. 

I am horticulturist Gary Bachman for Southern Gardening.