I finally took some follow-up photos of the lilies of the valley today. I was actually quite wrong about the size of the ones I have, so I’m glad I brought out a yard stick today! More new shoots too.
I went to a friend’s house the other day, which they bought last year. The LoV in one bed had spread into their lawn as well as a bit over their property line where they border on a sloped woody area. A lot of the vegetation in the garden overall hadn’t been minded in a while, so there’s a lot of work to do there, as we found when we bought our home here. I’ll be helping her thin them out later this week, as they get very invasive here and can take over woodland areas, suppressing native plants. That’s why I put ours where they are–it’s hemmed in by the house foundation on one side, and the asphalt from the driveway on the other 3.
That was smart of you 👍🏼 Mine was contained by concrete on three sides and now decided to run down the remaining length of the bed 😤, crowding out so many bee-friendly perennials. I look at my little garden bed and have to laugh at how much money has been spent trying to make it a bee oasis and how many monarda I’ve managed to kill.
One thing I didn’t realize about deadheading the monarda as much as I was made them over clump below ground and strangled themselves because I forgot you’re also supposed to divided them. 😳
Keeping them a bit thinned for air circulation to prevent powdery mildew helps too, especially if they are in partial shade. You can combine 1T of baking soda w/ water in a standard spray bottle and use it on the leaves if they get the mildew despite thinning during a rainy/damp year. I use the same mix when our pumpkin leaves get it too.
My worst garden thug yet best chop and drop is burdock. I’ve learned to use it to protect late growers so weeds don’t have much of a chance to start (like our strawberries we have between the fence and driveway), then chop the leaves back when those later plants are good and ready for some full sun time. I also keep it less thuggish now that I know to clip any seeds that start to form on them which I toss in our “baking bin” (metal ash can we put any vigorous weed seeds in for a year so the sun literally bakes them to death, and then they’re safe to compost).
I am still fairly horrible about starting flowers from seeds. We were lucky in that we “inherited” a lot of flowering perennials/self seeding annuals of various types when we bought our house–the original owners were definitely gardeners. 😄
My monarda grow a little the first year and then just don’t come back ☹️ Sadly, my thumb is not a green one. Thanks for the powdery mildew recipe, I just sprayed my newest (attempts at) monarda with copper fungicide because they literally came from the store and had PM three days later. My best plant by far this Spring is a 3 ft tall Squaw Weed that the birds kindly planted for me!
@bbstl I’m going to try adding more monarda this year now that I know what I did wrong. Sometimes it takes a few days of spray to knock down the PM, depending on weather.
It took a while after we moved here before I figured out which local nurseries were worthwhile buying from, as we had some dire disappointments our first year. I remember being quite mad that all the celosias didn’t last a month despite perfect siting. 😒
I would be thrilled if squaw weed volunteered in our garden! Here they call it golden groundsel. Both golden and running groundsels are native here. Running has thinner and wider spaced yellow petals. Depending on where you are, you might see the gorgeous black and red cinnabar moth near it, as it’s a host plant for their young.
We try to let volunteers grow until we can at least ID them, which has added some wonderful plants over time. This year there are a few patches of wild yarrow leafing out in the front of our house. My biggest surprise last year was a Queen Anne’s Lace. Although we do get lots of false carrots, it was the first year that showed up. Which reminds me, I saved some seeds from that and should start germinating them. The weather this year is much more mild than last, and we held off starting seeds indoors because we don’t have grow lights and last year everything got leggy and weak waiting for the weather to warm up because we haven’t built a small greenhouse yet–hopefully next year.
@Lily left the valley
It’s so funny how things don’t follow what they’re “supposed” to do, you never know what you’re going to get!
I drove past a roughly 40 ft long “wall” of Queen Anne’s Lace yesterday, it was breathtaking!
@bbstl Aye, that’s the amazing thing when you do see those wide swaths aka “carpets” of a certain species. Visually, it can be stunning in a good way, and sometimes even breathtaking due to the sheer scale of them. 😊
They’re not considered weeds, or at least haven’t been so far. Mine stayed contained for many years and suddenly in the last two years went berserk. Gosh, and their root system is serious! I also have goldenrod and phlox that have gone nuts, so I’ve been digging out a lot in order to,plant summer perennials for pollinators.
It depends on which resource you look at. To horticultural folks, they are a beloved flower and a must have in the garden. To native plant folks, they are a noxious weed that often escapes into woodlands and invasively crowds out native species on the forest floors, sometimes to the point of making near monocultures at the expense of what normally would be anywhere from 40-100s of varieties, depending on the micro clime. There also aren’t a lot of species here that feed on them, though there are some bacteria/fungi that can affect them when they are experiencing stress conditions (like drought or late frost).
That should have read “sometimes to the point of making near monocultures at the expense of what normally would be anywhere from 40-100s of varieties of other species, depending…”
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Lily left the valley
May 15, 2021 at 5:18 PM
I finally took some follow-up photos of the lilies of the valley today. I was actually quite wrong about the size of the ones I have, so I’m glad I brought out a yard stick today! More new shoots too.
bbstl 🧹
May 16, 2021 at 7:15 AM
These are definitely a good size! I dug out feet of LOV this year, they were taking over my garden.
Lily left the valley
May 16, 2021 at 9:04 PM
I went to a friend’s house the other day, which they bought last year. The LoV in one bed had spread into their lawn as well as a bit over their property line where they border on a sloped woody area. A lot of the vegetation in the garden overall hadn’t been minded in a while, so there’s a lot of work to do there, as we found when we bought our home here. I’ll be helping her thin them out later this week, as they get very invasive here and can take over woodland areas, suppressing native plants. That’s why I put ours where they are–it’s hemmed in by the house foundation on one side, and the asphalt from the driveway on the other 3.
bbstl 🧹
May 17, 2021 at 8:44 AM
That was smart of you 👍🏼 Mine was contained by concrete on three sides and now decided to run down the remaining length of the bed 😤, crowding out so many bee-friendly perennials. I look at my little garden bed and have to laugh at how much money has been spent trying to make it a bee oasis and how many monarda I’ve managed to kill.
Lily left the valley
May 19, 2021 at 6:39 AM
One thing I didn’t realize about deadheading the monarda as much as I was made them over clump below ground and strangled themselves because I forgot you’re also supposed to divided them. 😳
Keeping them a bit thinned for air circulation to prevent powdery mildew helps too, especially if they are in partial shade. You can combine 1T of baking soda w/ water in a standard spray bottle and use it on the leaves if they get the mildew despite thinning during a rainy/damp year. I use the same mix when our pumpkin leaves get it too.
My worst garden thug yet best chop and drop is burdock. I’ve learned to use it to protect late growers so weeds don’t have much of a chance to start (like our strawberries we have between the fence and driveway), then chop the leaves back when those later plants are good and ready for some full sun time. I also keep it less thuggish now that I know to clip any seeds that start to form on them which I toss in our “baking bin” (metal ash can we put any vigorous weed seeds in for a year so the sun literally bakes them to death, and then they’re safe to compost).
I am still fairly horrible about starting flowers from seeds. We were lucky in that we “inherited” a lot of flowering perennials/self seeding annuals of various types when we bought our house–the original owners were definitely gardeners. 😄
bbstl 🧹
May 19, 2021 at 8:01 AM
My monarda grow a little the first year and then just don’t come back ☹️ Sadly, my thumb is not a green one. Thanks for the powdery mildew recipe, I just sprayed my newest (attempts at) monarda with copper fungicide because they literally came from the store and had PM three days later. My best plant by far this Spring is a 3 ft tall Squaw Weed that the birds kindly planted for me!
Lily left the valley
May 19, 2021 at 1:29 PM
@bbstl I’m going to try adding more monarda this year now that I know what I did wrong. Sometimes it takes a few days of spray to knock down the PM, depending on weather.
It took a while after we moved here before I figured out which local nurseries were worthwhile buying from, as we had some dire disappointments our first year. I remember being quite mad that all the celosias didn’t last a month despite perfect siting. 😒
I would be thrilled if squaw weed volunteered in our garden! Here they call it golden groundsel. Both golden and running groundsels are native here. Running has thinner and wider spaced yellow petals. Depending on where you are, you might see the gorgeous black and red cinnabar moth near it, as it’s a host plant for their young.
We try to let volunteers grow until we can at least ID them, which has added some wonderful plants over time. This year there are a few patches of wild yarrow leafing out in the front of our house. My biggest surprise last year was a Queen Anne’s Lace. Although we do get lots of false carrots, it was the first year that showed up. Which reminds me, I saved some seeds from that and should start germinating them. The weather this year is much more mild than last, and we held off starting seeds indoors because we don’t have grow lights and last year everything got leggy and weak waiting for the weather to warm up because we haven’t built a small greenhouse yet–hopefully next year.
bbstl 🧹
May 19, 2021 at 8:26 PM
@Lily left the valley
It’s so funny how things don’t follow what they’re “supposed” to do, you never know what you’re going to get!
I drove past a roughly 40 ft long “wall” of Queen Anne’s Lace yesterday, it was breathtaking!
Lily left the valley
May 20, 2021 at 11:37 PM
@bbstl Aye, that’s the amazing thing when you do see those wide swaths aka “carpets” of a certain species. Visually, it can be stunning in a good way, and sometimes even breathtaking due to the sheer scale of them. 😊
nilsche
May 16, 2021 at 9:55 PM
@bbstl @lilyleftthevalley are these considered as weeds in your area?
bbstl 🧹
May 17, 2021 at 8:41 AM
They’re not considered weeds, or at least haven’t been so far. Mine stayed contained for many years and suddenly in the last two years went berserk. Gosh, and their root system is serious! I also have goldenrod and phlox that have gone nuts, so I’ve been digging out a lot in order to,plant summer perennials for pollinators.
Lily left the valley
May 19, 2021 at 6:21 AM
It depends on which resource you look at. To horticultural folks, they are a beloved flower and a must have in the garden. To native plant folks, they are a noxious weed that often escapes into woodlands and invasively crowds out native species on the forest floors, sometimes to the point of making near monocultures at the expense of what normally would be anywhere from 40-100s of varieties, depending on the micro clime. There also aren’t a lot of species here that feed on them, though there are some bacteria/fungi that can affect them when they are experiencing stress conditions (like drought or late frost).
Lily left the valley
May 19, 2021 at 6:23 AM
That should have read “sometimes to the point of making near monocultures at the expense of what normally would be anywhere from 40-100s of varieties of other species, depending…”