What Not To Plant

Thanks for the advice about comfrey Wildflower.
I've heard it has healing powers too.

Another invasive plant I'm always pulling out of my little camomile lawn is ajuga. At the moment I have more ajuga than camomile so I'm thinking of digging up the camomile and letting the ajuga take over.

Hello again Roders - after a busy summer I'm back.

 

Hi, Petal! Must admit I find ajuga a bit of a pain - it looks so untidy and gets eaten by slugs.... I'm constantly being asked to remove it from people's gardens :D

 

I like ajuga but have trouble keeping it going- the dreaded slugs again- I've never managed to get the tri-colour one to thrive and it's so pretty. I've got a purple bit at the moment that is growing OK-it's buried in alpine strawberries.
I've no idea what kind my comfrey is, it's big and hairy and grows around here in all the hedgerows, but its' flowers are mauve, pink, white, blue in lovely mixtures. I don't dig it up, just pull off the big leaves as I need them.
The most common use of comfrey used to be in the treatment of wounds and fractures, hence its'old name 'Knitbone'.
I've never seen the smaller yellow flowered variety.

 

Ajuga in my rockery at the moment....I like it,nice colour,good cover and good flowers,but yes it does need keeping under contol.

 

Got the Ajuga too. Once a friend came round and asked me if I had any Bugle as she had read in a herb book that it is good for some ailment that her dog was suffering from. I was slightly puzzled as I had never heard of this about Ajuga but told her to help herself. A couple of days lated I got a frantic email saying DON'T EAT THE BUGLE. She had mixed up Bugle with Viper's Bugloss. Luckily the dog was ok but could have been a disaster!

 

This thread is beginning to emulate the plants which we are talking about. I also have a troublesome 'Day Lily' as well as everyone's favourite Alstromeria both v. difficult to get rid of especially the latter - Ajuga thrives in my gravel drive but at least it is easy to lift out unlike the other two mentioned.

Happy Days..................

 

Hi,Blackthorn! Your crocosmia arrived this morning, safe and sound - and will be planted tomorrow, ready to establish itself, and take over Scotland :rolleyes:

 

Its only the Orange x crocosmiiflora that is a thug.............. every other crocosmia is fairly well behaved!!!

x crocosmiiflora is what gives crocosmia a bad name.............

I have around 290 varieties and there are some VERY beautiful ones around.

Mark