Cold Climate Gardening

Good looking but hardly innocentI call creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) the evil twin because it looks just like ladybells, (Adenophora confusa), only it is aggressively spreading and ineradicable, and ladybells is well-behaved.

So they say.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Isn’t this a stunning specimen of Polygonum cuspidatum? The generous rainfall we’ve had this season has brought it into top form. Too bad it’s on America’s Most Wanted list. Yes, this is Japanese knotweed, aka Japanese bamboo, Mexican bamboo, fleeceflower, and Fallopia japonica. (I’ve been told that it’s also known as privy weed, but I couldn’t find any confirmation of this on the web. However, the luxurious stand pictured above is growing right where I was told the outhouse was located, back in the days when our house lacked indoor plumbing. Presumably the leaves were used as a makeshift toilet paper.) And all this luxuriant vegetation will be knocked down by the first frost, only to rise again next spring. Vigorous scarcely begins to describe this ambitious plant. It is invasive. It is beautiful. Who said villains are always ugly? And if you like to play with fire, Plant Delights Nursery sells three Polygonum cuspidatums that they claim do not spread by rhizomes. Two of them are variegated, and they are wow! plants. But will I buy one? Let’s just say, “once burned, twice shy.”

A lot of the weeds are looking really good.

Popularity: 32% [?]