troublesome vines
Today I pulled out a bunch of Japanese honeysuckle with stems almost a half-inch thick. It had planted itself among a stand of nandina and I did not even notice it until the white blooms revealed themselves a few days ago.
I hate pulling honeysuckle out because it has a pretty flower and a nice fragrance. If only it did not spread everywhere. When I first moved here there was a whole corner of the yard completely covered with it. It still keeps popping up along the fenceline.
There is a coral variety available which is much less invasive. I would try it but I am not sure I could keep from confusing it with the Japanese variety.
I have another vine in my garden that is even worse. In fact it is one of the most troublesome weeds in my garden. It is a relative of morning glory which I call bindweed. It seems to pop up just about everwhere with thin twining stems and heart-shaped leaves. It strangles my roses and other perennials and can be very tedious to remove without damaging the other plants.
April 29th, 2004 @ 7:11 am
Here at the border between hardiness Zones 4 and 5, one of my two Japanese honeysuckles died after three or four years, and I am waiting to see if my other one comes out of dormancy this year. I forget when it usually leafs out. Right now the daffodils are blooming, so perhaps it is early yet. I enjoy seeing how different your gardening season is from mine. You’ve already eaten your first potatoes; we haven’t planted ours yet (though I grant you we could have). You yank Japanese honeysuckle out of the ground; I pray mine made it through the winter. At least I don’t have kudzu! But we do have pasture rose, which is wonderfully fragrant but damnably invasive.
April 29th, 2004 @ 6:53 pm
I seem to recall reading another blog recently about the same problem. 1/2″ thick stems is pretty thick, I’d say!
We still don’t have any open buds in our yard. This waiting is KILLING me.
April 30th, 2004 @ 2:18 pm
ya’ll can come work in my yard if you get through with yours….my Wisteria is JUST NOW popping into bloom!! I told ya MAY
April 30th, 2004 @ 7:09 pm
I have that heart-shaped bindweed here in northern New York, too, but it plaes in comparison to a plant I have heard called both Japanese & Mexican “Bamboo,” probably because it has hollow stems. It isn’t bamboo, though, but an invasive broadleaf plant that can grow eight feet tall. It is Knotweed. This stuff can grow through asphalt pavement. When we first moved into our place–which had been long-abandoned–the stuff was everywhere. I have used judicious applications of Roundup & constant cutting to gain something like control. This is the toughest invasive plant I’ve ever had to deal with.
April 30th, 2004 @ 7:57 pm
Yeah, Japanese knotweed, Polygonum cuspidatum, I know the beast well. Goats like to eat it, and frost cuts it down, but that’s about it. My friend Bub knows it as Privy weed, and it is growing on our property right where the outhouse formerly used to be. The leaves are big enough to be used as toilet paper, but they wouldn’t be available in the winter. Maybe it was used as a screen to hide the necessary from view. If not for its susceptibility to frost, it would probably be the kudzu of the North. And even with the frost, it is very hard to kill. Permanently.
May 3rd, 2004 @ 1:24 pm
Bindweed is everywhere, I think. I fight it, too. Although my nemesis is the ground ivy - Glechoma hederacea. Argh!
May 3rd, 2004 @ 1:24 pm
Bindweed is everywhere, I think. I fight it, too. Although my nemesis is the ground ivy - Glechoma hederacea. Argh!
May 6th, 2004 @ 5:00 pm
Bind weed , or tie vine ,as my dad called it, is taking over large parts of my 1/2 acre garden. I ask several farmers that I drink coffe with what to do about it and got no responce. I ask again ,siting their vast experiance with such things, still no answer. On my third querry ,one of the fellows finally told me—Move. I have found that bind weed can be kept down with constant hoeing and cultivating, you must stop the tops from feeding the roots. My resolve abates,but bindweed never relents, all efforts have proved futile.
May 9th, 2004 @ 11:18 am
Week 18: 5/3 - 5/9
Bearded iris: ‘Silverado’