I gave my mom this plant last year. It's spreading in a wet, shady spot where she has Hydrangeas. I do not think this would overpower anything at all.

its a freakin nightmare ... given a few years ...

though it does respond rather nicely to roundup ... and its generics ....

5 years later.. i am still irritated having bought it at a plant sale at a very famous arboretum ... they should have known better ...

OK.. got that off my chest ..... now the rest of you can tell me of its glories ....

ken

LOL. Ken, it's forbidden for planting where we live. I didn't know that at the time, but mine didn't survive simply because it was planted in a drought-ish area of my property.

If you are looking for an alternative, I'm extremely impressed with Angelina Sedum as a striking yellow groundcover. I have mine interplanted with a red groundcover sedum and it's performed beautifully for me, formed a nice carpet.

I can agree with Ken on this one... It's a freakin' nightmare. While it looks great initially, if you ever want to change it out or get rid of it, you WON'T. It keeps reappearing every year no matter what you try to do to get rid of it. Wherever it touches any ground, it reattaches itself and roots right there, so you now have another one to worry about.

I have had it for many, many years in a number of beds--dry partial shade to moist full sun. Yes, you have to pull it back periodically, but a freaking nightmare? Never.

I've had mine 3 years and so far so good. I pull it away around plants here and there and away from the lawn edge. I may still be in the honeymoon phase. Its looking very good right now before other stuff gets going.

A definite divide in opinion!

Sounds like sedum might be the safer option.

EXCEPT: Know that Sedum 'Angelina' - which I use a lot! - also spreads like
the Golden Jenny. If you drop the tiniest clipping as you cross the lawn, for example, soon enough you'll have a new colony where that "tiny piece" took
root. . .it has happened to me twice, so I'm just more vigilant now. The
distinct advantage of "Angelina" over "Jenny" (sounds like a cat fight!) is that
"Angelina" takes on beautiful russet tones in cooler weather and actually
looks wonderful during the winter. . .still, I use them both and simply keep
a watchful eye - "Angelina" in full sun, "Jenny" in partial shade.

Carl

Golden/yellow creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia aurea) has mostly died out in a perennial bed here, but made up for it by spreading into adjacent lawn. It's not conspicuous in that area, but I can see it being a problem in, say, one's front yard where uniform turf is desired.

Or you could take advantage of the Lysimachia's spreading habit and combine it with Ajuga to achieve a LysimachiaAjugaLawn for a nice yellow, purple, blue and green patchwork quilt effect.

talk about a catfight... that would be interesting to see which one wins between Lysimachia and Ajuga. Ajuga would get the edge in shade. Jenny in sun. In part-shade, let the catfight begin...

Angelina can root from a tiny piece, however it's easy to pull out while Jenny likes to sneak into the middle of other plants and then you have to dig up the other plant, wash the roots, go through them thoroughly looking for bits of Jenny, replant and pray you got it all or toss said infested plant. Hmm, let me think about that one! ( I have occasionally used Jenny in large pots where it looks lovely draping down the side, just clip it before it hits the ground.)

I have not have problems with either ajuga (in fact I wish mine were more aggressive) nor golden creeping jenny but...I have seen a bed where the creeping jenny was smothering other plants and the owner thought it was a freaking nightmare and told me not to plant it when I asked her about it.

I disagree with Ken.
I've had it for 4 years. It will root wherever it touches the ground, so keep it away from your lawn.

Every couple of weeks, as you walk around your garden, grab a handful and tug if it starts wandering into areas you don't want it to be.

Here's a pic from my garden last year.
{{gwi:225302}}

Mine has a huge preference for growing into the lawn. It has a nice soft loose bed it can grow in, but no, it prefers to run as fast as it can, and as far as it can, into the lawn.

Given the plant's invasiveness, would it be appropriate to plant in a woodland garden? I have this large wooded area in the back of my new home. When I first moved in a few months ago, the wooded area was full of brush probably about 6-7' tall, under a canopy of mature, deciduous trees. I hired someone to clear all the brush in the winter and it looked beautiful until a month ago. Now I can see all the invasive green brush sprouting back up. So I'm in the process of spraying Roundup 'Brush Killer', wait 2-3 weeks, and then uproot all the brush. But I would like to convert that area to a beautiful woodland garden at some point. So I planted some 8' white pines, and I'm going to mix in some hostas, ferns, and astilbe. But I thought it would be great to have a colorful groundcover as well. I'm just wondering if Creeping Jenny would be a good option. It's invasiveness would certainly create a colorful 'carpet' quickly and hopefully help fight off the brush from coming back. I just don't know if the Jenny would compete with the surrounding hostas and ferns for moisture. I would greatly appreciate any feedback you could kindly offer. Thank you!

bobby

I planted several fist fulls of Lysimachia nummularia aurea and yellow Lamium maculatum last summer. Only a tiny piece of Lysimachia survived the winter whereas the yellow Lamium is growing beautifully. I am watching how much this piece of Lysimachia will grow this year.

Surprised to read that it's an invasive for so many people.

Mine has grown very slowly for years, gravitating towards a concrete path rather than where I try to direct it. I have a few small "islands" of it (rather than a big "carpet") that I move around from time to time. But that's it.

Maybe it dislikes the heavy clay (alkali rich?) soil around here. Or our summer nights are too cool and dry...? [shrug]

This post was edited by ms_xeno on Thu, May 22, 14 at 18:46

i always find it amazing when a one inch tall plant makes 200 pound guys-or gals-go wah wah wah

I'm currently pitting creeping golden jenny Vs creeping thyme in a moist part shade walkway area, winner take all

It is not invasive in Central Texas. It needs to be coddled with irrigation and soil amendments. I look at lawns as an unpleasant invasive.

Cat fight, haha.
It is doing well for me. Going right back on and around a stone woodland path. Slowly.
Where not much would take in soggy shade except a bit of rue, astilbes, and ferns off to the side of the path. Everybody is welcome on that path. Jenny can be walked on without harm.
I like its contrasting color in shade.
I was concerned about Ajuga for a couple years as it was winning but up and disappeared one year. I kinda miss it.

I love my creeping jenny! For five years it was very mellow, didn't spread at all despite me wanting it to. Then in the last years it has taken off more (wet years). But not in a way I can't manage (though it definitely requires some weeding around other small plants). I don't have it anywhere near lawn, so I can't speak to that. It seems to be more bountiful in full sun (I have it in a variety of light conditions). Lot of clay in my soil, I don't know if that slows it down more.

jenny and ajuga hanging out together

It's a freakin' nightmare. ;)

A relatively slow-motion horror show, but if you like your lawn gradually turning a speckled yellow it's just the thing for you. My Lysimachia-lawn about 8 years after it first escaped, now covers about 15 square feet but it's in an inconspicuous area.

This is how much mine has grown in 5 years.

{{gwi:225303}}

Aggressive? No, not for me. Hopeful? Yep. It's getting a bit more sun now, so I'm sure it will do a little better. Seems the key to me is keeping it in more shade and less sun, oh, and clay soil. That seems to tame the beast a bit, as well. Mine is in amended clay.

If Jenny is like Charlie, FORGET IT. I've been dealing with Charlie for 30 years and finally just gave up and let him grow in the yard. It still looks green to people driving by on the road, that's all that matters to me now, so Charlie can have the yard. He won.

It looks like people have quite opposite reactions! In my garden, my clump has been more or less like funnthesun's - not growing significantly in the 5 years it has been planted there. Question for those who grow it in pots - are these perennial pots, as in a huge clump that has been left outside over winter to restart in spring? Or newly planted every season?

It is very zone and condition specific as to how aggressively it will spread. Ours has been slow but aggressive, grows in between everything and hard to pull it all out. It also out competes anything native in the beds without human intervention. I thought it was annual but learned better . . .

I had some in NH, zone 5/4. It barely survived and then a large part reverted. I think after about three years I had to decide to either start over with Golden Creeping Jenny or try something else. Then we moved so I never had to decide. Definitely NOT aggressive for me!

Creeping jenny is seasonal in my yard. It dominates the ground layer in one wet shady spot in early spring then dissapears when the soil warms up and dries out a little.

Where are you, such as nearest big city? Growing zone? Sun or shade? Here is grows vigorously, but your area appears to be much warmer.

There's a large sago palm type plant so it has to be somewhere fairly south. Here in Central Texas , it has to be watered to survive. It struggles.

I’m in Houston, Texas. And yes several have died already. And yes I found out that it needs constant watering. I don’t have an irrigation system, and to be honest, it’s really time consuming to water then every single day. So I’ll keep you guys posted on the outcome of this. But I really do hope the bulk of it survives.

If you can get them through the summer to establish in the fall and winter, maybe next year will be easier. I would at some mulch over the bare spots. Not too deeply and maybe maybe a quickly rotting much. Maybe aerate the soil or ad some drainage so you get some percolation into the soil.I planted mine by the hose bib and let it spread to where it liked. It did not spread far. LOL.

Does anyone know how long, if they survive, it will take to cover my entire bed??

Did you plant these in end of May/June? I always plant water/shade lovers like these in cool weather. Planting them in early Summer in Texas is your problem . They have gone from planting stress immediately to heat stress and not having any time to establish deep water delivering roots.. How much sun does it get? I can't really tell you how long it will take to establish. I do not know your ground or how growing conditions in Houston. My suspicions are that you will have stalled plants no matter what you do till it turns cooler. If it is getting sun, I would put up some cardboard baffles to protect it. Can you put in a temporary soaker hoses? I combine them with a manual timer and that saves gobs of time hand holding a hose.

Yes that’s when I planted them. A little bit over a month ago. Not sure what stalled plant means. And it’s weird, I heard that they do well in both full sun and shade. In fact, the ones that I planted that gets full sun, are the ones that doing a whole lot better than the ones in shade. So I don’t know. And as for the soaker hose, that’s a good idea. Maybe I’ll do that. Until then, I’ll keep watering them daily. These pics are right when I planted them.

Stalled plant = a plant that is not growing but not dying either. Houston is different from where I am.