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In our Gardens

© Bill Richardson

In our Gardens.

Have you ever bought a nice plant for your garden only to find it takes over the garden bed or becomes very invasive?

Worse still, have you found that once it has become established, it is impossible to get rid of? Even worse, it has grown by runners or root stems to other parts of the garden!

Well, we wouldn't do that deliberately but there are some plants that we would call "normal" house plants that can be very invasive to an annoying degree.

But wait, you ask: "How can that be"?

Many of us who grow specialist plants and buy new species that we know little about will recognize that bulbs, plants, tubers or runners can take hold in an environment that has become "perfect" for them to grow in.

We certainly become conscious of the necessary and important quarantine restrictions that our individual countries put on importing plants, seeds or bulbs. But that is another story, one that we will not deal with here, although it is certainly one that we possibly should make ourselves aware of.

I have read and been involved in discussions on other discussion sites that have mentioned even much loved plants by some - but not so much loved by others because of their weedy tendencies.

Remember the famous saying "A weed is only a plant in the wrong place"?

Maybe you have encountered this yourself in growing new species? How many of us have pulled something out that we were originally "dying to procure", only to find that it was overwhelming the garden?

I'd like to mention just a few that I have encountered that may or may not be, a problem.

Gladiolus

Lachenalia

Ixia

Wachendorfia

Oxalis

"What's that!" I here you exclaim - "IXIA??"

Yes, my own favourite Ixia has a tendency to be invasive in some instances.

Remember - "A weed is only a plant in the wrong place"

I'd like to share with you a few examples of these plants I've come across that could be seen as "problem plants'.

I remember buying seed of Wachendorfia aethiopica from South Africa a few years ago. I had seen the flower pictured in books but it was not generally available in Australia, so I sent off to a reputable seller in Capetown SA and soon I had them germinating in 4 inch pots. Some of you who know me will realise that I grow and leave most of my species in small pots because I have filled up my growing area. At the end of the first year, these Wachendorfia were bursting out of the pots. So, I upgraded to 6 inch, then 10 inch pots. Eventually after going to a 20 inch pot I had to plant them in the ground. I discovered quickly that they need a very large area to themselves.

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