WEEDS! Pull This, Not That!

Regardless of late snows, the weeds are popping up everywhere in our gardens!  Before you begin pulling up plants indiscriminately, though, consider which ones you are pulling and how you are getting rid of them.  Let’s start with an obvious pairing.

Celandine Poppy vs. Lesser Celandine

Lesser Celandine is a terrible, non-native invasive that will take over the universe.  The Celandine Poppy is a beautiful, native, deer-resistant perennial that thrives in shady gardens.  Both are in bloom now;  both are bright and sunny yellow.  That’s about all they have in common.  If you are lucky enough to have Celandine poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) volunteering in your garden, for heaven’s sake leave it alone!  It will make you happy for years to come.  It may die back in summer, if planted in a dry location, but will return to make you happy every spring.  It is not invasive at all.

Rampant Lesser Celandine at Horseshoe Lake Park, April 20

If, on the other hand, you see Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) popping up in your garden, do not be tricked into complacency by its buttercup yellow seeming innocence (it is a member of the Ranunculaceae, and therefore related to buttercups;  also clematis, hellebores, and all sorts of more desirable cousins).  You must remove this monster from the garden immediately, or you will have no garden left at all.  And you must do so carefully because if you leave bits and pieces in the soil the plant will regenerate.

Here, thanks to Suzy Hartford, is a link to a wonderful article from OSU explaining how Lesser Celandine grows, and how to remove it successfully.  This article does suggest using “-cides”;  if you have only a few little invaders, please care for our pollinators and thoroughly, carefully dig out the tubers and roots instead of spraying poison.  Do not compost them;  they go in a closed container in the trash.  If you put it off, you will have many thousands to eradicate later.

Bishop’s Weed vs. Golden Alexanders

Bishop's Weed covering the floor of Horseshoe Lake Park, April 20

Bishop’s Weed is an appallingly fast-spreading, nonnative invasive that I have been trying to eradicate in my backyard ever since I moved to Ohio in 2006.  It had been planted intentionally as a ground cover.  Golden Alexander (seen with a dandelion – you may pull THAT) is a charming native that is particularly valuable for local pollinators.  It, too, is deer-resistant and bunny-resistant.  It blooms in late spring, holding airy yellow umbels of yellow bloom at up to 2’ in height, and those umbels are a target for many, many butterflies as well as smaller native insects.  In my garden it thrives in dry, full shade, although it prefers some sun and more moisture.  Its proper name is Zizia aurea;  please do not confuse it with the similarly common-named Golden Alexander Loosestrife.  This is why we should always use botanic nomenclature!

Snow on the Mountain, photo from internet

Bishop’s Weed, also known as Goutweed (Aegopodium podograria), is almost impossible to eradicate once established.  It will not die with an application of “-cides”, although it may suffer a brief temporary setback.  It is (heaven forbid) actually available for sale in Ohio nurseries, and many innocent gardeners have been fooled into buying its variegated sister Snow on the Mountain as a “desirable” ground cover.  There is nothing desirable about this plant, whether green or variegated.  Like Lesser Celandine, if planted it will overpower and kill your other perennials.

I found, after writing these paragraphs, the following column about the best methods for eradicating this monster, and imagine my surprise to see that the author, like me, set it in opposition to the desirable Zizia!  And she is so right – removal of this horror is back-breaking work over many years.  If you like the airy, upright structure of these umbelliferous plants with toothed, compound foliage, there is an obvious choice – go for the Gold.

Garlic Mustard vs. Anything Else

First Year Rosette of Garlic Mustard at Horseshoe Lake Park, April 20

There is no comparison between Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and anything else.  This monster is in a class by itself.  It is a biennial plant.  In the first year it appears as a short rosette of leaves (photo #8, April 20 in Horseshoe Lake Park).  If you find something that looks like this in or anywhere at all near your garden, dig it out and kill it.  You can dump the small plants in a bucket of vinegar if you like, or cook with them – at this stage the foliage is edible.  Many of us remember the years of dishes we tried out at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes when they featured garlic mustard recipes at their spring event Pestival.  Personally, I shall never forget Garlic Mustard Ice Cream, nor do I wish ever to encounter it again.

Garlic Mustard, second year, setting bloom, photo from the internet

In the second year, garlic mustard grows taller and sets bloom.  Quick!  Pull it out and dispose of it in a closed trash bag, before the seeds get loose in the world!  Garlic Mustard is an invasive nonnative noxious weed that is allelopathic;  that means its roots exude hormones that disrupt mycorrhizal relationships in the soil, thereby keeping other plants, like desirable native wildflowers or (heaven forbid) the perennials you paid money for, from surviving near it.

This particular weed (and I do not often use that word for a plant, but it applies here), is a problem across the entire lower 48 states.  Click on this link to learn how King County, Washington, suggests eradicating it. 

That’s a start for this month.  If you can kill these three horrors, you are well on your way to a much happier, healthier garden!