Too Much of A Good Thing? Keeping Invasive Perennial Plants in Check

There are many advantages to gardening perennial plants. For example, perennial plants are often much easier to care for and propagate than annual plants. But this advantage can often have an unintended disadvantage, when certain perennial plants begin to overtake your garden, yard, and perhaps your neighbor's yard as well. Many a gardener has had their garden overrun by mint and other rambunctious perennials, but there are ways to keep invasive perennial plant species in check.

Besides mint, some other very common invasive perennial plants gardeners should keep an eye on include Bamboo (Arundinaria), Garlic Chives (Allium tuberosum), Borage (Borago), Bee Balm (Monarda), Perennial Sunflowers (Helianthus), Freesia, Evening Primrose (Oenothera) and Tansy (Tanacetum). This is not a comprehensive list, however, and you should always check when adding a new perennial plant specimen to your garden as to whether its growth habits is invasive or not for your area.

Not all of these plants are invasive in all regions, either, since the success of many perennial plants is determined by regional factors. Plants that are not hardy, will not be invasive in cold zones, while those that need winter dormancy do not usually pose a threat in fair weather regions.

If there is an invasive perennial plant for your region that you do want to grow in your garden, there are ways to help keep the species in check.

• Consider planting the invasive perennial plant in a large container set in the ground. The container will keep the roots from spreading into nearby garden patches, thus restraining the overall growth of the plant. This a method that is particularly useful for gardening perennial plants like mint - provided you also keep a watch on any runners the plant may send out that reach beyond the confines of the container, and you also make sure the drainage holes are not so large that the roots can grow through them.
  
  
• For perennial plants that spread through seeds, removing seed heads when they are forming is probably the best way to keep these plants in check, although for those that propagate only through seeds this will also disrupt their perennial habit and you may need to replant the next year.
  
  
• Regular plant dividing and the weeding out of invasive seedlings are another way to keep your invasive perennial plants in check, and it will help keep your perennial plants healthier and more productive as well.
  
  
• Finally, check with your local plant supplier to see if non-invasive varieties of the species are also available. Often there will have been varieties developed specifically to be less invasive in growing habit.
  

Hopefully these tips will help you be able to enjoy your favorite perennial plants that also have invasive growth habits.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Poisonous Perennials

When you are gardening perennial plants, you should try to keep in mind the safety of the plant species in your garden. If you have young children, or pets, special care should be taken. You should be committed to learning what plants you have growing in your garden that have poisonous parts to them, teaching children about the dangers of plants and eating them, and keeping poisonous plants, seeds and bulbs out the reach of pets and small children.

To help perennial gardeners with this responsibility, I thought I would compile a list of some of the more common poisonous perennials you might already have growing in your garden. This is not a comprehensive list! There are many more dangerous plants, including perennials, that can pose a threat. Do your research when selecting a perennial plant, and make sure you know what you are planting.

Here are a few perennials that are either all or partially poisonous:

Bleeding Heart - all parts are poisonous
Buttercup - all parts are poisonous
Clematis - all parts are poisonous
Columbine - all parts are poisonous
Ferns (some species) - all parts are poisonous
Hyacinths - all parts are poisonous
Iris - all parts are poisonous
Lupine - seeds are poisonous
Narcissus - juice is poisonous
Tansy - all parts are poisonous
Wolfbane - all parts are poisonous

Gardening Perennial Plants Book Review: Perennials for the Backyard Gardener

Perennials for the Backyard Gardener, written by Patricia Turcotte, would be an excellent investment for your gardening perennial plants library. The book is divided into two main sections. Part one deals with designing and planning perennial gardens, while part two profiles perennial plants (divided into five categories: bulbs, low ground covers, middle-range perennials, high-growing perennials and biennials).

The book is written in an easy to read style, and is filled with drawings and photographs to illustrate topics and provide examples. The author tries to anticipate what kind of questions perennial gardeners might have, and provide sensible answers to these questions. Some of the sections I found most useful dealt with designing with perennials and propagation.

One downside of the book is that it focuses heavily on perennial flowers. Perennial vegetable species are not mentioned at all, nor are many evergreen perennial plants profiled in the book. Still, much of the information about planting, propagating and caring for your perennial plants are applicable across the board, and because of this I feel this is an excellent resource on gardening perennial plants.

Gardening Perennial Plants Blogs and Articles

The purpose of this website is to provide a variety of information on gardening perennial plants. To the right of this post, you will find links to recent articles that I have written on perennial gardening as well as other perennial gardening blogs that I maintain. Please feel free to check these out, as well as the posts on the main page of the blog.

If there is a topic regarding gardening perennial plants that you would like to read more about and don't find it here, please feel free to leave a comment on the blog. All suggestions are welcome!
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