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Northwestern Gardening

lily of the valley

15 years ago

Help! I cut back 3 large ferns in a wooded area, and now find to my horror that I have been invaded by these things.... they are surfacing everywhere! How on earth can I get rid of them without destroying my other plants?

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Comments (15)

Embothrium
15 years ago
Dig them out. Or spray with herbicide, being sure to keep it away from the other plants.
buyorsell888
15 years ago
Pray to the garden gods! I've been digging and painting Round Up on mine for years and still have them....
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Embothrium
15 years ago
One thing that hasn't been made clear is if we are talking about Convallaria or the native.
scarleta
15 years ago
I would love to have some lily of the valley if you have spare I will gladly take them.I am in Vancouver and absolutely can't have enough of them.If you keep removing them you will succeed, but it will take you several years and you can't totally remove them especially if you have allowed them to " take over" your yard.
joesdog
15 years ago
Still, if one must be invaded, I can think of worse species to suffer. Just think, you could be battling those *%^(#$!@)%^ blackberries....

cheers!

jd
buyorsell888
15 years ago
Mine is Convallaria and I've been digging and spraying for ten years....
Embothrium
15 years ago
We still don't know whether or not westgate is instead talking about Maianthemum, which is does not produce the beloved floral fragrance of Convallaria.
westgate
Original Author
15 years ago
I think I may have the dreaded convallaria, but will have to wait until it blooms. I had cut back an area covered with ferns, to get fresh growth, and the wretched stuff moved right in! It seems to be popping up before my eyes, everywhere! I'm trying to talk myself into digging it out, bit by bit, but I think it may be a losing battle. It is now showing up in some flower beds, quite a distance away. Perhaps it is from outer space!!!
hemnancy
15 years ago
I have wild Maianthemum racemosum, False Solomon's-seal, and consider it a treasure. It has a wonderful fragrance and blooms a lot longer than Lily of the Valley. Sadly the deer have decided they like it and have been eating off all the bloom.:-( I have to put wire cages around it. I don't think I've seen the False Lily of the Valley, photos look like a shorter version of False Solomon's Seal without the fragrance.

I also have an area of Convallaria, no weeds grow there, and while the bloom is so short I hardly notice it, I consider it a very neat and attractive plant. I don't care to grow anything else there so it's no problem. I'm finding sword ferns to be quite a problem, though, they get very large and start flopping all over all surrounding plants.
buyorsell888
15 years ago
Do you cut the old fronds off every spring? This grooms them nicely though they do eventually get big.
hemnancy
15 years ago
buyorsell888- No, I have 2 acres infested with 3 kinds of blackberry vines, 10+ kinds of noxious grasses, thistles, etc, so cutting back ferns is not something on my to-do list. But I looked at the 2 in the midst of the LOTV under my rhodie, and I decided that they need to go. I have transplanted a few out onto our front bank and under some cedars, I guess I could move them somewhere. When leafed out they cover a 3' diameter circle and will only get bigger. I actually enjoy the carefree, weedfree bed of LOTV, and now the flower buds are developing. I had to move a very large in-the-way sword fern already from under my weeping cutleaf Japanese maple, it was a monster.
westgate
Original Author
15 years ago
What does LOTV mean?
buyorsell888
15 years ago
Lily Of The Valley
muddydogs
15 years ago
Give me the dreaded convallaria garden outbreak. You must have those nasty bluebells. What is the latin name for them? Lily of the Valley flowers are worth gold, especially at weddings.
buyorsell888
15 years ago
I have the nasty bluebells too. Scilla something.
They are pretty in small doses but they've seeded all over and I can't seem to make a dent in their numbers. I did not plant them. When we removed lawn to make flower beds they popped up.

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