Is Milkweed Invasive?
Sunny_Dee
12 years ago
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darrylvk
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Least invasive milkweed
Comments (8)Tony, I have read of others who have over-wintered A. curassavica in the garage or basement. How do you overwinter yours? It is so easy to start from seed, that I hadn't thought much about doing that. I over-wintered some Salvia 'Black & Blue' this past winter in the garage and the plants did great (and are now out in the garden) so the tropical milkweed would probably do likewise. I've got common milkweed that is already 1-2 feet high, and no Monarchs yet, so do I even need the plants earlier? Although maybe it would attract them earlier to the yard if there are more total milkweeds growing....See MoreWhich ones should I not plant? invasive? help please!
Comments (4)Asclepias speciosa is extremely invasive in a garden bed. Roots as thick as your thumb in every direction. I'm in z3, if you lived here I would advise against growing it unless you lived on an acreage where you could give it plenty of room. I had to eradicate it from my garden it was such a thug (and a jolly time I had trying to do it). Grows in large patches on the prairie here. John - my experience is many native prairie plants are invasive in my city garden. Several others I've had to remove from my garden or work hard at containing - Oenothera caespitosa, Sphaeralcea coccinea, Glaux maritima, Rumex venosus, Solidago missouriensis, Artemisia ludoviciana ....See MoreRoot/rhizome weed invasion in my fancy flower beds
Comments (7)Oh man, I feel your pain! Bishop weed is notoriously tough to get rid of. I tried once, by removing the top 6" of soil, but it grew back anyway. I was glad to move away from it (incidentally, the BW didn't chase me away. LOL!) If faced with that plant again, I would remove the desirable plants and smother the whole area for a year, or 18 months if starting in the fall. Then uncover a small test area and make sure it's safe that following summer before assuming it's dead. Another approach could be to smother a new garden spot now, to move desirable plants to in the spring. Then smother the BW spot for as long as you need. I don't know how much space you have available, or what might sound better to you. I wouldn't use plastic though, just corrugated cardboard under at least 6" of organic matter. Might as well improve the soil while smothering, not kill all of the microbes. I would rinse the roots of the desirable keepers as each one comes out of the old bed. The smallest pieces of root from BW can stay alive, keep growing into a whole new invasion. That should also prevent the moving of tiny purslane (or any other kinds of) seeds into the new area, if that's an option for you. Totally agree, seeds don't go well in mulch, if they go at all. You might want to remove most of the mulch (if it hasn't yet decomposed) from a newly smothered area in which you want to have sprouting seeds. If it's been there through a winter, the cardboard should be gone. But, when removing mulch used for smother, be ready for other seeds that were in the soil to then be able to sprout. The first year of any new spot is the toughest, as the "bank" of existing seeds exhausts itself. If you can get through the first year of pulling stuff before it drops new seeds, sprouts of those plants should be dramatically less the following years. A hard border around beds can help keep grass out, and mowing with the chute aiming away from beds. Timbers, bricks, that kind of thing....See MoreTrying to find the good in all our invasives
Comments (1)So very sorry about the invasives taking over your property. Regarding the Honeyvine, Monarchs will lay eggs on Honeyvine and the little cats can grow to adulthood on it. Mama Monarchs will use other varieties of milkweed more frequently, at least here in my garden. This vine will spread by underground roots and of course by the seed dispersing on the wind. I grow it in a big pot. Occasionally, I see a tiny sprout on the ground nearby where a root has escaped the big pot but I pull it and that seems to keep it pretty much contained to the pot. I originally grew it to have as backup food. It is a hardy vine. Even when I neglect it, it still returns each year. Surprisingly, I have never seen a seed pod on it. Concerning the invasives, I know the feeling of dispair as we had thorny blackberry vines to contend with. I don't know if they originally came from a neighbor or were planted by the prior owner or by a bird but they spread everywhere by underground runners. After many battles with them, I finally bought a small container of Brush Killer, put on double protective gloves, poured some Brush Killer into a disposable container, dipped cotton balls in the liquid, then put one cotton ball on top of each freshly cut vine stub, put a plastic sandwich bag over the cotton ball and secured tightly with a rubber band. The covered cotton ball allowed the brush killer to remain on the stub, where the brush killer was drawn down into the runners and roots. That eradicated those awful spreading vines without damaging anything else. I had tried to cut them down, dig them out, etc. and nothing worked. They were coming up in my garden beds and even in my lawn. I liked this method as there was no over spray, nothing getting out into the air or into my lungs and nothing getting against the poison, as it was covered tightly with the plastic bag. If you ever get a hankering to go after a few of those unwanted plants, you might consider giving this a try. You can work at it as time permits as the preparations are simple. Nothing gave me such satisfaction as to see those horrible thorny vines die and wither away. Thank you for growing milkweed for the Monarchs. Mary...See Morehelenh
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