4 Favorite Plants that became Invasive

When we first built our home on a 3 acre lot, my gardening goal was to fill up the many bare spots in the landscape with favorite plants. Fast forward 20 years and some of these plants have become invasive. Below I'll describe the plants and how they've worn out their horticultural welcome.

Area Overgrown with Liriope

1 - Liriope

Liriope is also known as Monkey Grass and Creeping Lilyturf. When I first started gardening 30 years ago (at a different property), this was the plant everyone used along sidewalks and driveways as a border. I had no idea that this border plant can morph into a ground cover.

Recent research reveals there is a clumping form(Liriope muscari) and a ground cover(Liriope spicata) species. The ground cover form spreads through underground stems with rhizomes. These rhizomes have the appearance of little bulbs on the roots and are hard to completely remove.

Overgrown liriope is one of the most difficult areas to reclaim. While I was busy raising children, our front yard garden along the house became overrun with it . It provided a hiding place for snakes, rodents, and insects. In the summers, I would mow a path through it to get to the water faucet.

To reclaim this area, we treated the liriope with glycosphate (Roundup) 3 times. Caution was taken to avoid peony and butterfly bushes in the same area. Once the die-off was complete, I covered the area with barrier fabric and topped with mulch. As individual plants sprout through, they are sprayed.

I'm happy with the reclamation. Now I can walk around this area and tend to other plants. Unfortunately, this is not the only area I planted with Monkey Grass...

English Ivy Growing Up a Tree

2 - English Ivy

I admired a friend's groundcover of English Ivy. I couldn't wait to start my own. The ivy has taken over many flat areas as well as climbing trees and the side of our house. It can be killed with glycosphate - a single treatment will do. Once it dies on a brick wall, the vines need to be removed by hand. For ivy growing up a tree trunk, cut the vine at the base of the tree, and pull off what you can.

Periwinkle Vines as Ground Cover

3 - Periwinkle

I'm seeing a pattern here as Periwinkle is another plant that I admired in another yard. It has beautiful lavender flowers even on sunny winter days and attractive variegated leaves. It can create a ground cover and choke out smaller plants. Fortunately, Periwinkle vines are easy to pull up roots and all.

Periwinkle Vines with Flower

"City Block" Forsythia

4 - Forsythia

I have what I call "city block" Forsythia. This is a bush that has expanded over the years to a tremendous size covering up neighbor plants.  Forsythia spreads by sending shoots downward where they attached to the ground and become an independent plant. Severe pruning can get the bush back down to size. Unless roots are dug up, chemical treatment of sprouts will be necessary.

Blooming Forsythia-Woodpecker in Foreground

What about you? What plants have grown out of control in your yard? I would love to hear about it in the comments below.

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