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Creeping phlox- weeds out of control

Nobasil (z4 New England)

9 years ago

We bought a house 4 1/2 years ago with neglected perennial beds/ trees etc. I've successfully battled paccysandra and goutweed but I can't keep the weeds out of the creeping phlox. Any suggestions? Or do I just tear it out and start over?

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Comments (6)

aachenelf z5 Mpls
9 years ago
I see this all the time in old beds of creeping phlox. I suppose you could carefully paint each weed with Roundup being really careful not to get any on your phlox, but I think it would be easier to pull everything out - get rid of the weeds - carefully and thoroughly pull every weed out of the clumps of phlox and replant. It should recover quickly and in a year you probably won't even notice the bed was redone.

In the future (and you probably know this), pull every weed when you see it.

Kevin
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Whitelacey
9 years ago
I fold my Phlox back to the central stem and pull the weeds. It is easier than trying to dig through the plant and get at the weed's roots. Easy-peasy.

Linda
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It expands in mass at the base the stem...It won't do that in that weed cloth and river rock. In fact nothing much will do worth a darn in that combination for very long at all. My advice and the advice of many many gardeners is get rid of that felt stuff and the rock and mulch with organic matter...wood chips, sawdust. cocoa bean shells pine needles or whatever else you like...but the purpose of a mulch is to keep the soil cool and moist and rocks get very very hot and there is no exchange of air beneath that fabric stuff, no worms no composting of mulch going on and eventually the fabric will become full of silt and you will have a garden that can't get water, so the roots of your plants will grow on top of the fabric....and all the bits and pieces of stuff that falls will create a layer beneath the rocks....and in spite of it all you will get weeds growing in the rock. Ask me how I know!!! Sorry about the rant...but I spent a lot of time helping my daughter get some plantings in shape that had that stuff down for about 6 years before they bought the house. Lots of grunt labor, but we did it. Then they had another child and moved....and guess what!? There was more of that stuff in the new house...but this time it had bind weed growing in the fabric itself. Linda C
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daylillies range from the short hybrids with 'fans'( the leaves) only a foot or so tall, to the local 'ditch' lilly, which can have 40" fan in full sun, and the flowers are right in my face in the summer (I'm 5'7") the ditch lilies have the advantage of being cheap or free- and they spread freely in anything short of drought conditions. but they are the tallest. the forsythia is a full shrub, can get 8' square without thinking about it, or can be pruned to shape. they can also be propagated by 'stapling' a branch to the ground, and letting it root. in a full sun condition, there are a few other choices- spiderwort spreads like hateful gossip in the sun, forms dense clumps, and I'm in love with the deep violet-blue flowers...and if you planted it now, you could dig the clump up in september, divide it, spread it out, and have six or either clumps by next spring ( if you're in Bucks Co close, I can provide them for a fraction of what the nursery will want for them) gout weed (I prefer the name 'false lamium' which sounds a little less painful) is another damned aggressive monster that's impossible to kill, and isn't unattractive- green and white striped foliage, spreads by seeds, runners, and roots, not too tall (the stems fall over when they get about 14" tall, and tend to root where they touch the ground) groundcover roses is a lovely, but pricey option. Rocks, since you're a local, can be a good option to interplant with the plants. the upright sedums are also a viable choice for a slope around here- mine came from a single leaf I plucked from a roadside planting, it was a cauliflower-sized clump that fall, and it roots REALLY fast- you can break a 'branch' off and it will root in the dirt in a week with no trouble at all.
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prairiemoon2 z6b MA
9 years ago
I have a lot of large patches of phlox. I mulch heavily under them and for the most part that is working. I have one patch that is showing grass coming up through it and I have no idea where that came from because it's not near any grass. I've been busy with other things, but I will just have to get to it this week and I'll do as Linda does, fold back to the center, pull all the weeds out, then replenish the heavy mulch. If I had persistent weeds coming through, I'd probably lay down some thick cardboard under bark mulch to keep it from coming back.

edit: Not that Kevin's suggestion to dig them up and weed and put back has no merit. I can think of some types of weeds that if their root system was intertwined with the roots of the phlox might require his suggestion. But I would still try my way to see if that wouldn't take care of it first, before I would dig them up and replant.

This post was edited by prairiemoon2 on Wed, Jun 11, 14 at 5:52
diggerdee zone 6 CT
9 years ago
I agree with Linda and PM2. Phlox is pretty easy to just push aside or lift up, and you can weed that way. If the weeds are too entangled with the roots of the phlox, then you may have to take Kevin's suggestion to dig up the entire thing, clear the weeds, and then replant the phlox. But I would try lifting and weeding first.

If your creeping phlox is near the lawn, you may want to consider putting in some kind of physical barrier - edging, etc. - after weeding to help keep the grass out of the phlox. And while I never thought to mulch my phlox, that's not a bad idea at all, to help keep down the weeds underneath.

Dee
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
at worst.. in fall ... when there are cool nights ... ID individual plants ... and trim the back ... dig them out.. remove all them weeds growing thru the roots ...

renovate the bed ... replant.. and mulch heavy ...

like all of us.. you want the easy way out.. sometimes ... its all about some hard work ...

try what they suggest ... for this summer.. if you lose.. get to work ...

or just get rid of the whole ...

you didnt favor us with a pic .... so we really dont understand how bad it all is ...

MOST perennials ... 99%.. can be dug and moved ... mid summer isnt the best for all plants ... depending on your experience level ... [i could do it now.. and not care if i lost half the plants.. and that is the key ... lol ... not that i would do it better... its that i would NOT have a stroke if i failed ... anything would look better than it is now ... never fear your failures... you wont learn anything.. nor get anything done if you dont try .]

as an experiment.. you could do half the bed now ... see how well you did.. by fall ...

then do half in fall ... and see if you do better... comparing next spring ...

and you instantly become.. the new CP expert on GW ...

never forget.. failure.. and empty spot in the garden bed .... is just an opportunity for something new ... its called gardening ...

ken
Nobasil (z4 New England)
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks everyone!
The weeds are too solidly there to just pull up and remove (but it's nice to know that with better maintenance it could be like that).
I'll likely move them and then find some way to get rid of the weeds (any opinions on round up vs a few weeks of black plastic??- I don't really like using roundup but occassionally do in small amounts)
(And it will likely be the fall anyway since there will be more space in the vegetable garden to plant it temporarily then.)
(I'll try to get a pic up at some point, it's right in some granite ledge and that makes it a little more complicated in terms of mulch not washing away).
(I'd probably have torn it out and thrown it away years ago if it didn't look so nice this time of year.)

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