How to get rid of pilewort and some other nasties

Hi folks,

Another year, another battle. I have four flower beds/patches, but this year they seem to be overrun with pilewort (celandine) plus one other unidentified blight. You'll see from one particular photo showing one patch inundated with grass-like shoots. Does anyone know what that is, please, and can shed any light on how to tackle it? It's particularly tricky because it's so prolific and sparse with no surface area to work with, so sprays may be out of the question. (I'm not overly keen, but would consider if it's the only option.) Complicating things further is my somewhat restricted movement. The last time I spent half a day bending and croushing to spread mulch and my hamstrings were so sore, I struggled to move for days afterwards.

Many thanks.

 

I wouldn’t worry about celadines. Once they’ve flowered they will disappear for another year. They don’t seem to bother any other plants.

The very thing grey green shoots look like alliums to me - sphaerocephalon?

 

Celandine is pretty when flowering but can spread quickly to places where it's not wanted and smother a border.
Each plant produces a number of bulblets each year which themselves produce more bulblets the following year.
They also self-seed, so can soon take over quite an area.

Sprays are not really effective as they just runoff the glossy leaves. Adding 3 or 4 drops of washing liquid to a spray helps a little to make it adhere to the leaves. Glyphosate would be the one to try, but the if the spray gets onto the leaves of any other plant it will probably kill it.

So you're left with either regular hoeing yearly whenever they appear, or dig them out, which is not what you want to hear.

 

Anyone else have a horrible sinking feeling that the grassy shoots are couch grass? I'm sure I can spot runners.....If it is, whip out any prized plants, wash their roots and relocate/pot up, then blitz celandine and couch grass with glyphosate. It might take all summer and 3 applications, but it's worth waiting to be sure that the couch roots are truly dead.

 

That looks like a sedge to me, not couch grass but I would get it out anyway.
I agree the celandines are not worth the effort of digging up, you would only spread the tubers.
By the way, I recently bought a pot of winter aconites for £3.50 and sfter planting decided they are just posh cenandines really!

 

I have seen a stall selling pots of celandines at the local car boot sale!

 

There are some selected forms of Ficaria verna such as Brazen Hussy with coppery leaves and Flora Pleno which is a double form.

 

These were the bog standard ones, they were being sold on a fruit and veg stall. Looked like the sellers had just dug up the weeds from their own garden!

 

Sedge too

 

A friend of mine has asked me to let them have some along with some Anemone blanda.
Their one saving grace is that they spend most of the year below ground and then pop up for a month or so with bright yellow flowers.

 

I like Celandines, but then not possibly in a border with other plants, they look nice in semi wild areas and in grass.

 

I like them. They are so cheerful during their brief visit. I’ve not noticed them smothering any other plants here although thinking about it they’re mostly in the grass and some wilder areas

 

My garden is absolutely covered, my back lawn currently looks green but it's mostly celandine leaves. I don't have a problem with them - as you say they are very cheerful - I just find it hard to imagine anyone actually needed to buy them!

 

They don't seem to be bothering that nice pulmonaria,@Escarpment !

I put up with celandines, got them everywhere! Difficult to eradicate without doing injury to other plants or yourself! They are rather cheering, and they obligingly vanish once flowering is over.

 

I'm very proud of that pulmonaria. I pulled a few small pieces up from the pavement around the corner where they were growing, having escaped someone's garden under the fence. Because they were growing on the pavement it was hard to get much root up with them, so I wasn't expecting a lot, but they've established really well - I think this is only their 2nd spring after being transplanted and I've got 3 decent sized plants growing.



The expensive "Ensign Blue" pulmonaria I bought from the GC last year has vanished without trace though!