I've sent the last 3 days digging out a couch grass infested bed, the thing is this isn't even a big bed but OMG what a job. I left a montana clematis planted at the base of the fence in one corner and some joe pye weed in the opposite corner.

In this bed there was the remains of a dead lilac patio tree and the 10 ft high shoots from the understock, I think some specie lilac, it bloomed this year and the flowers looked like lilac and were fragrant. It was turning into a monster so DH used the mattock and I dug and dug we finally got that sucker out yesterday.

A couple more plants I wanted to keep still growing in this mess, a siberian iris (Looks Morish), a piece of rodgersia (forgot which one) and a tradescantia (Rondeau Sapphire) I bought quite a few years back from a nursery back east that is no more.

Also mixed in with the couch grass that twined through everything was yards of a pink geranium roots which I also kept a piece of.

I put the pieces of the plants I wanted to keep to one side or I thought I did. When I went to pot them up, I found the iris, the rodgersia and the piece of geranium but do you think I could find the pieces of tradescanthia, Arrruuuggghhh!!!

I spent an hour going through the pile waiting to go to the landfill (a truck load). It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, no such luck I couldn't find them :(.

It was time for supper, DH brought home fish and chips which we get from our local chinese restaurant, I was too pooped to cook. After doing dishes I read "Lady luck is shining on you" this was in my fortune cookie, I mumbled not likely or something along that line.

Later I went out to pick up the last remaining weeds, roots, grass etc. still sitting in a pile where I had thrown them.

Guess what I found tangled in a mess of geranium roots, my tradescanthia roots. Talk about a happy camper, I don't think you can buy this variety any more, it was an introduction from the nursery that closed down a number of years ago, so lady luck was shining on me, the small pieces I rescued could have so easily got swept up, loaded in the truck and ended up at the landfill.

This is a plant I will definitely share when it increases, just goes to show you should never be the only one growing plants no longer on the market, sometimes the flowers are single, sometimes they bloom double and a favorite of mine.

Here's a pic of the flower.

Is it just me or does kind of thing happen to any of you?

Annette