Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Garden Thug

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Mexican Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa ‘Siskiyou’)
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Once again, the Evening primrose is out of control. It’s growing into the path and coming up a 3 feet away in the middle of the lemon thyme groundcover. Plant catalogues state it “can be aggressive”. That certainly is an understatement.



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I've been trying to weed them out all summer one by one. Time for radical surgery I decided. The plants really need to be dug out because the roots break off easily.
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The roots are everywhere sending out shoots in all directions. Roots live under the stepping stones and come up on the other side.



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It’s impossible to get them all. The best I can hope for is to slow them down. I also dug back about 6 inches inside the little brick edging that is supposed to be their boundary.


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Evening Primose has a pretty pink flower in spring and long bloom time. If I had done a little research before I planting, I may have found out that it should be contained or given free range in a lot of space.


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After 5 years in my garden, I wish I had done my homework before I planted this little thug.




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5 comments:

donna said...

Marie, it looks like you've put the little thug in its place. I've never had Evening Primose in my yard and now I'll know to do my homework before planting one. The pink flowers really are pretty.

Marie said...

The flowers are really pretty which is what got me to plant them in the first place - and started my love/hate relationship.

María Cecilia said...

Hi, your primroses are very beautiful, no matter they are out of control.
(excuse my english, please)
María Cecilia

Marie said...

Hi Maria Cecillia,
Thank you. The primrose blooms profusely every spring. They light up a corner of the garden.

Robin said...

I am sure we could find a good home for those sweet shrub suckers at the Friendship park community garden(if they have roots)