IT’S PRETTY ENOUGH, and nice in arrangements, but all I really want to say about gooseneck loosestrife is: Why won’t this plant die? It’s another of the “confidence booster” (read: so easy as to be thuggish) perennials I started out with naively 20-something years ago here, and can’t get rid of. Add Lysimachia clethroides (above) to the list with chameleon plant (Houttuynia cordata) and comfrey and and and and … the depressing list of easy perennials weeds I planted, and will never be rid of. Some of the measures I have gone to trying to banish them are recounted here. (Bet it will sound familiar to some of you.)
Hi, Robin. The “Name Game” is hard to keep up with, isn’t it? Cimicifuga is indeed Actaea, but most gardeners stick to the older names. Confusing! Even Bluestone Perennials’ catalog has various “bugbanes,” including ‘Hillside Black Beauty‘ and plain racemosa and so on.
That’s hilarious, Anne. Unimaginable that anyone could actually get rid of the plant! By the way, my favorite garden: Powis Castle. I have had a few good visits there, and the steep site with all those preposterous terraces always inspires me (as I garden on a hillside, somewhat less majestically!).
My own gooseneck loosestrife is at the front of the house. It is indeed invasive but I manage to keep it in check. The problem I have with it is to keep it watered enough. It’s in a very dry spot, sunny but too close to a big Norway maple. It wilts very easily and getting a hose to that part of the yard is really difficult. So I have a love-hate relationship with it. My MOST INVASIVE plant is petasites! I planted it years ago after reading your book A Way to Garden and I’m been battling with it ever since as it’s trying very hard to take over the whole backyard. The plants are stunning and I love them but i don’t think it was a good choice considering that I have a small yard. It’s popping all over and I don’t know what to do.
Hi, Louise. Sorry to hear about the Petasites. I dig it ruthlessly every spring and fall (sort of digging around the spot where I want it, like a trench or moat) and throw any dug-up parts in the trash, not compost. I have one big patch in the backyard bordering stones and the lawn on the other side. Interesting to hear about the Lysimachia wilting, etc. In a recent comment here I mentioned what friends have done to eradicate it, so scroll back a few comments.
BEWARE garden club and master gardener sales…there’s a reason why these folks have extra to sell! The most invasive stuff is sold there.
I got a lovely whitish-green interesting leafed plant at a Master Gardener’s sale, but nobody said it would also be incredibly invasive, or grow over 8 feet tall!
I wish I could remember the name of it.
Hmmm..I love my gooseneck loosestrife when it’s flowering, but spent part of yesterday cutting all the dead flowers off and trying to rein it in. I planted it in front of the mailbox along with obedient plant and both have taken off.
Despite all the road salt and sand each winter, they come back!
But now the loosestrife has invaded the nearby flower bed and I’m having such a hard time pulling it out. I guess I have dig the whole thing up and pull out as much as possible this fall.
Oh wait…I remember…Plume Poppy!
http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=2894
I inherited Bishop’s Weed. A thorough dig followed by a year of black plastic only increased its vigor. I have learned to accept it as part of my design although I did hear that planting one thug to beat another works … in this case, Anemone canadensis which is native to my area and something I might try.
Dear Margaret- Thank you for bringing up the gooseneck loosestrife. I was happy to get it from a friend and planted it in two corners of the yard as a ‘filler in’. Fill in it did and now I sometimes feel like the madwoman equivalent of Jack Nicholson in The Shining as I dig it up, pull it out and do whatever I can to get rid of it. If I keep it watered it will burn beautiful shades of yellow, light greens and reds in the fall. Now I want to plant a tree where it is growing and I’m fearful the roots will kill the tree, but I will try digging it out anyway and just see what happens. Love your site!!
We dug a iittle bed far away from everything else and planted it with gooseneck, artemesia absinthium and another variety of lysicmachea. We call it the War Zone. So far, all three are thriving, none having choked out the other. For science!
That’s hilarious, BrokenBarn; “The War Zone.” I have some such areas, too. I will now rename them and laugh rather than curse at them, thanks to you!
Yes, we also have an area that approaches a war zone–it’s very dry and has heavy clay soil. We have gooseneck loosestrife on either side, and the central area is planted with Euphorbia amygdaloides robbiae (Mrs. Robb’s bonnet). I think that latter would survive nuclear war and continue to thrive.