Lol! were? Still are!

Obedient Plant. Worst thing imagineable. I bought it a long time ago when I was a newbie because I saw it at a local park and thought it "pretty". And of course I planted it in a moist spot. It soon started popping up in the middle of other plants. Seven years later and I am still plucking out little starts of it from the middle of the Veronica.

Aegopodium. Need I say more?

Also...that creeping Bleeding Heart, Dicentra something or other. I am having a brain freeze at the moment. But you guys know it- the one that if you leave one little root it will keep on growin'. I have gotten rid of this one at least. Yay! One battle down...now the war on weeds ;-)
CMK

Oenothera speciosa 'Siskiyou' went crazy on me, and even though it was easy to pull out, it was just relentless year after year. In full bloom however, it stopped people in their tracks from a good distance.

It's funny, I would never plant it myself, but a patch of Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegatum' came with my current house/garden, and I consider it quite "useful" in its current location.

And, Houttuynia was a bad one as well.

I've been pretty lucky so far (knocking on wood).

As a new gardener, I tried Houttuynia... THREE times, lol. All three times it died on me. By the third time I was a bit more knowledgable and realized I had dodged a bullet.

Geez, talk about dredging up memories - I think the same thing happened with bishop's weed too, lol. (I should stop showing what a bad gardener I am and stop admitting to killing every invasive known to man, lol.) I am considering trying this in a pot on my patio, because it really is beautiful. A friend of mine has had a planting of it at the base of an oak tree for years and years and never had a problem. I know I wouldn't be so lucky, so it will be in a pot, if I do try it.

I tried for almost eight years to get lily of the valley established. Then last year I finally got more than three flowers. This past spring I had a nice-sized clump.... and now I'm starting to worry, lol! But I love this flower so much, and it's in a woodland setting, so I will keep an eye on it and not let it get out of control.

:)
Dee

Agree with so many of the ones posted here. Absolute worst was Hottuynia, such a pretty little thing with those heart shaped colorful leaves. I planted three and had millions!
Another invasive one for me is Lysimachia clethroides (gooseneck loosestrife). Planted one in a bed and it literally swallowed the whole bed.

Here's my list of perennials not to plant:
Asiatic Dayflower (Commelina communis) There's a reason why Texans call this "Widow's Tears"!
Mexican Petunia (Ruellia brittoniana or R. malacosperma)
Dwarf Oregon-Pacific Aster (Aster dumosus hybrid)
and Showy Evening Primrose, too (of course).

Kevin >: (

I planted two houtt...(chameleon plant sp?) last summer in partial shade (2-3 hrs. sun) and hope to see it again this spring. I planted 3 of these the year before and they died. Too much shade, I guess. I can't imagine this thing becoming invasive in my shade garden. Miriam

Gooseneck loosestrife. It is now confined to a cinder pile at the bottom of my rock garden where it's behaving. You can sometimes use invasive plants if you can find the perfect setting for them. It was not, however, a terribly difficult plant to keep controlled in other beds, if you were brutal about yanking out the excess each spring.

Our worst nightmare was crown vetch. I'll leave it at that. Think five years of round-up and flame throwers.

I'm finding rudbeckia Golsturm thuggish too.

Also a planting of ampelopsis arborea is eating up some near-by, more desirable aristolochia vines.

Here in our mild climate the Giant Himalayan Blackberry imported in the early part of the 20th century by Luther Burbank from India. It escaped into the countryside and now is everywhere. It takes years of spraying with brush killer, as it has extensive running roots. Roundup has no effect on it. Birds eating the fruit are continually reseeding it. Al

I planted purple loosestrife, nice picture on the tag, purple leaves, pretty yellow flowers and in 3 years it took over a 6' x 12' flower bed, choked out the lilies and everything else. I had to dig out the whole flower bed and let it sit for a year and then sprayed Roundup on little pieces that were starting to grow. Another one I had came with the house when we moved in. It had pretty white fragrant five petalled flowers on it but it too took over the whole flower bed. Don't know what it is called but it sure is a pain. Stan

Wow, Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'!?! It spreads a little for me, but not endlessly, and I've rarely, if ever, seen it self-sow.

I had to Google the Giant Himalayan Blackberry -- interesting!

It's always good to bear in mind that invasiveness in the garden is affected by climate and growing conditions.

For instance, one recommended native perennial is swamp sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius). And it's a nice plant. However, when I grew it in SE Texas it attempted to take over its bed through persistent running roots - very difficult to control.

Here I have to keep after a few persistent troublemakers, including a mislabeled native goldenrod, a white-flowered Campanula (C. takesimana?) and Lysimachia ciliata "Purpurea" (also sold under one or more hybrid names - an aggressive spreader).

One "invasive" that's a welcome filler and easy to pull out when it gets excessive is hardy ageratum, Eupatorium coelestinum. The shallow roots make it easy to control.

I won't go so far as to call these things invasive--I prefer aggressive.

macleaya cordata/plume poppy (I actually bought this)
lysimachia ciliata (beware the neighborhood plant sale)
rudbeckia laciniata (btnps)
spiderwort (came with yard)
lily of the valley (cwy)
some little groundcovery veronica (don't know where this came from)
raspberries (at least I'm eating well)
sweet autumn clematis

I'm also fighting some tansy and furry mints that maybe I planted (must watch those lottery seed mixes). I've got some obedient plant marching about as well, but it's easy to pull.

This is the year I'll be ruthless.

All green liriope and cherry bells campanula--I doubt if I'll ever be rid of these. A neighbor shared the liriope in my early gardening days and it has now even made its way into the woods behind my house. I traded for the cherry bells. They are beautiful but who needs a million of them.

Creeping Jenny, very lovely, but creeping? I don't think so, it is more like leaping instead of creeping! I had to rip it out, but it still pops up here and there!
Lily-of-the-valley, I planted almost 30 of those suckers under my hedges. They haven't spread yet, but I'm holding my breath. Can't get them to flower yet in their second year, so I hope at least to get some flowers this spring.

then there are the invasive weeds ...

pokeweed
queen annes lace ...

darn birds .... i kill hundreds of these every year ...

ken

i think i will start a new post for these ....

Gee, I just planted some QAL on purpose! I've tried growing it from seed and haven't had much luck. My friend was clearing out her garden and gave me some to try to transplant.

I know I'm taking a chance with this one, but I sell cut flowers so my thinking is that most of it will be cut and out of the garden long before it sets seed.

I should add that I grew up in a pretty gritty city. Yards were postage-stamp size, and very few gardens - maybe a shrub or two at most. We had a back alley where things like QAL, butter-and-eggs (to this day not sure what those were - some kind of snapdragon??), honeysuckle and spiderwort grew, and so I came to love these flowers because it was so cool to see them growing in the cracks of the asphalt and at the base of chain-link fences.

So to me, some of these invasive, weed-like flowers bring back some good memories.

:)
Dee

Adenophora (ladybells) is the scariest thing I ever intentionally planted. I thought it was like a spreading campanula (which I love). It formed these huge tuberous roots which were impossible to get out of the ground without breaking into millions of pieces (millions of new plants). It also seeded itself all over the place, yards and yards away from where it had been planted. I can't believe it is actually offered for sale because it it is also very floppy and UGLY. I'd deal with bishop's weed any day over this plant.

lysimachia ciliata !

Uh, ohÂ

Just got that earlier this year at the neighborhood plant sale! Loved the purple leavesÂnow what? !

Dirtdiver, is yours the purple leaved kind? When I google searched I saw another one that was a solid green, pretty plain.

Yes, my lysimachia ciliata is the purple-leaved kind. It looks lovely when it's first emerging in the spring, dark and glossy. I think it's getting by on the baby/puppy/kitten evolutionary phenomenon--it's cute while it's young so you don't want to do anything to harm it. I don't find it at all attractive come midsummer. The purple sort of fades away to a dull, dusky green, it's lax in habit (here, anyhow) and I don't like the yellow flowers very much. And on top of its lack of attractiveness, it's a thug! But I think it took at least three years for it to start getting out of hand for me. I don't think it'll be that awful to control if you stay on top of it--which, frankly, I didn't. I spent an afternoon this fall roguing most of it out of a bed. I'll be curious to see how much I missed come spring.

The only lysimachia that I've tried that's polite is Lysimachia punctata ÂAlexander. In a crowd, he's even a little shy.

Invasive for me:
-Bishop's Weed
-Obedient Plants
-Perilla fructescens - reseeds by gazillion
-Solidago canadensis
-Buttercup - the kind that sends out roots and new plants at the end of stems
-Campanula glromerata

Aggressive:
-Queen Ann's Lace - I planted these on purpose because it blooms when other plants start to wane. lol I have to be very attentive in dead heading, so watch out Dee.
-Aster ericoides - reseeds and sends out roots that also grow into new plants
-Yeah, Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'
-Impatiens capensis - reseeds heavily too, but the plants make good compost. :-)

I can keep down those reseeders quite well if I mulch heavily...but not always. :-P

So help me pitimpinai, I've been admiring impatiens capensis for years (since I saw it invading a Pilsen courtyard garden), even though I know it's supposed to be a pest. If there's another swap this spring, I'd love to have a couple of seedlings--or seeds. I'm not completely sure it will even like my yard with its dryish sandy soil. But then again, I probably am sitting on lake swampland (albeit drained a century or so ago), which I believe might be a common native environment for it.

In the garden, there are a few "vigorous" plants. The large perennial sunflowers, Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' and H. maximiliani spread by rhizomes and grow huge both height and width. I am amazed by ever-increasing girth on the Lemon Queen, despite the fact that I give away clumps of it every Spring. Physostegia virginiana is now in pots, awaiting its banishment to some far corner of the yard where it can spread to its heart content. I wish the violets were a little better behaved, because they're so pretty in the Spring.

However, none of the garden plants compare to the Buckthorn (Frangula alnus), Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) and other non-native invasives that I have been battling for 4 years now in the back half of the yard, which is mostly wild.

Oh and the Pokeweed. Zillions of them. At least it's native, it hold its own against the Buckthorn and Honeysuckle, and birds love it.

I'll be happy to bring you Impatiens capensis, dirtdiver.
I gave a friend a tray full a couple years ago. They grew much fatter and nicer looking in her yard in Naperville.

Mine are usually too thin and tall because they are squashed together. The seeds are rather difficult to collect because the seedpods usually pop when I am not looking. And they pop when they are still quite green while I think they might be too young to harvest.

boltonia asteroides spreads entusiastically by stolons. I wouldn't call it "invasive" but it is perhaps best planted in an area surrounded by asphalt.

Sweet autumn clematis isn't listed in VA as an official invasive exotic, but it is an aggressive reseeder and gets large enough to damage a tree.

Garlic mustard, a true invasice exotic, occasionally rears its ugly head in my garden, but it doesn't stay long. Oddly, rosa multiflora, which is very common throughout the countryside, has not appeared in my garden.

Buckthorn - grows throughout the woods on our old farm and seeds itself into all garden beds. I don't think I'll ever get rid of it since the soil has such a large seed bank by now. Plants that I've regretted putting in my garden beds due to aggressive spreading include gooseneck loosestrife (stolons), Joe-Pye-Weed (seeding and tenacious roots making it difficult to remove), Lobelia syphilitica (prolific seeding) and forget-me-not (prolific seeding.) All the prolific seeders have ended up spreading to the lawn, to other garden beds, etc. and just been a lot of work to control. I think that they are all site-specific problems and that with different soils and temperatures, they aren't a problem in other settings.

You know all those spectacular tropicals y'all grow in pots? Elephant Ears are an absolute plague here in the Deep South. I paid eight whole dollars for Illustris, and it took five years of extremely dedicated work to get rid of it. I laid the dug out plants on my driveway and let them cook in the (southern) sun so they'd die....everytime it rained, they'd revive. I finally bagged them up and sent them to the dump.

Then there are River fern, aka Thelypteris kunthii (free plants...do your homework before planting!), yellow flag iris (the seeds are viable forever, but the seedlings are easy to pull young. good thing.), Goldsturm rudbeckia (yes, they seed for years after the plants are gone), and OBEDIENT plant (ha!).

Here's one that I am keeping a watchful eye on: Puple Loropetalum. If you damage a root while working in your bed, you get a sucker immediately. Man, I hope these aren't going to be problematic. They're my favorite purple foliage plants for our area.

Good thing the former owner of our house is deceased because she and I would have some conversations about the mint she planted in the flowerbeds while she was alive! If anybody has any ideas how to get rid of mint forever, please post here. Wished I knew where she is buried; I'd dig some up and plant on her grave!

just after my wife and I were married she spread out one of those "perennial blends" in one of our planting beds. 4 years later we finally beat the yarrow (the only thing which came back after the first year) by moving from the house. the new resident liked that the lawn stayed green all winter long and was soft under his feet.

I've beaten many others listed here over the years. i even planted crown vetch on purpose because I liked the drifts alone I80 heading east. It never got out of bounds for me

~Chills

Chameleon plant here too. Oh. My. Gosh. This stuff has a smell that is absolutely nauseating. And of course I had planted it right beside the hose faucet, so I was treated to it every time I turned the hose on.

Another I thought I'd never see the end of was some kind of variegated Artmesia. So cute in the 4" pot. Very pretty yellow and green dissected leaves. Good grief. The first year it reached four feet tall, and I realized my mistake. I dug it out the next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, for about five years I think.

I am cringing, because I either have or was thinking of getting a few of the plants in this thread. :) I think Ruellia is so pretty! And I just got Illustris. Ruh roh.

Aster tataricus -- lovely but spreads like wildfire

Oenothera 'Siskyou' as somebody else said -- might be OK in very lean soil without much water, deifinitely not for rich moist soils

Lysimchia clethroides -- one year after planting one plant is making a circle 6' wide.

Siting is the key for all of these -- use the vigorous spreading in contexts where it will make a good groundcovering plant and can be contained by trees and shrubs.....sidewalks and driveways...nuclear bombs... ;o)

I have had many invasives also. The tall campanula (given to me in a pot, no name), lily of the valley, working on getting rid of them for 5 yr. now. Periwinkle or vinca minor, working on getting them out for about 10 yr. A tall purple phlox, given to me as a start..grows all over by runners and seed starts. Queen Anne's lace, via the birds. Plus a few more that I don't recall, until after I post this.
Darlene

Hands down is lamiastrum Herman's Pride. I thought I had erradicated it from the shade gardens as I quickly saw its terrible potential but what I didn't know was that pieces of it had been washed farther down the slopes into the woods to start new colonies. Within a couple of years I noticed that all the native woodland wildflowers in several areas were gone--trillium, ginger, jack-in-the-pulpits, hepaticas, geraniums--everything had been overrun and suffocated by the lamiastrum.

Five years later I have it about 80% under control, two to three sprayings of Round-up is needed. Discovered that once the original plants are killed by herbicides, the seeds left behind start the cycle all over again.

Personally I would ban lamiastrum as a noxious weed.

Do inlaws count?
jim_6b