Physalis (chinese lanterns) can be invasive. Also, last summer I puchased a very pretty plant called silene vul maiden's tears. I sware everytime it rains this plant grows another inch or two. I've trimed it back this year already and its not even june yet!!!

How about Persicaria Painter's Palette? I have that and it is spreading everywhere. It's grown for its foliage and is quite pretty. Another spreader is Oenothera or Evening Primrose..that spreads a lot too.
Yarrow can be agressive and attracts butterflies. Also Black Eyed Susan can spread a lot.

Lysamachia purpurea and Lysamachia clethroides are very pretty and just as aggressive. Just be careful what you wish for.

We need more information to make relevant suggestions, including: sun exposure, soil type (i.e. stays damp, well-drained), whether you want to maintain a pristine lawn next to the plot (some "invasives" will spread into the lawn) and whether you want to retain the possibility of using that plot for something else one day (once planted, some perennials cannot be eliminated by anything short of a controlled nuclear explosion).

For now, I'll mention a couple of plants good for sun.

One that is relatively carefree, flowers for several weeks in late spring/early summer here and has modestly attractive red-tinted foliage late in the season is Oenothera fruticosa (sundrops). It spreads moderately in average soil but is shallow-rooted and can be eradicated without a lot of trouble.

There are bee balms that are tough and attractive, with limited maintenance in sunny spots that stay on the moist side. One is "Jacob Cline" (it's mildew-resistant).

If you aren't concerned about surrounding lawn invasion, don't ever plan to use the plot for something else and want ultra-competitors, investigate multiple members of the Lysimachia clan, plant variegated Houttynia or bishop's weed, or to be completely reckless, an aggressive running bamboo. Someone on my route to work has a barrier plot planted in bamboo, and this year (either because of a deliberate plan, family illness or laziness) it has been allowed to send a forest of monster sprouts up through the lawn bordering the road (a few are nearing ten feet in height). I'm uneasy about the possibility of it breaking up the asphalt as it seeks out new kingdoms to conquer.

Please don't plant any of the aggressive bamboos because it will take over your neighbor's yard also and they'll hate you for it.

Many sedums are spreaders, although they probably wouldn't be able to compete with the weeds. Many plants in the mint family are very aggressive and will colonize large areas.

Most plants don't stand a chance when put up against weeds - it's one of the many reasons people consider them weeds.

If it is full sun try golden marguerite. It doesn't spread by root, but reseeds like mad. Pretty gray/blueish ferny foliage with yellow blooms all summer. I think these could hold their own against weeds once they get a good start. Not a big spreader, but steady & can hold its own against weeds is cup plant silphium perfoliatum, a very tall plant with large leaves & I think very interesting with yellow daisy flowers in August.

How about bee balm or something low growing like red and white clover or mint?

Ditch daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) is a monster. It will grow no matter how you will neglect it.

For full sun I vote for Blackeyed Susans. Those little devils seed like crazy and they are very hard to dig out. Balloon flowers also seed themselves around very well. I wouldn't call them invasive but you'll have plenty of self-sown babies and they don't really need maintenance. Bee Balm is another nice choice if you want to add some height and variety of color.

Scabiosa (needs sun)
Viola (needs sun/shade and reseeds quite well)
Nasturcium, especially if the soil is not improved. If it lives at all, it reseeds well. Comes in quite a few colors, and you can eat it... (needs sun/shade)

Lady's Mantle has formed a solid mat in one part of my garden, another spreader for me is Persicaria superbum. Lily of the Valley and Welsh Poppies are two more and let's not forget Corydalis lutea.

A......

AAH! A "Thug Garden"....also called survival of the fittest....plant 'em and let 'em duke it out!
Perennial phloyx, Physostegia, oenothera Missouriensis, rudbekia in many of it's various permutations, day lily ( the better cultivars are more attractive that the old "Ditch" variety and just as hardy) Siberian Iris, including all the nifty cultivars....etc etc etc...
And I didn';t even mention Houtenanny ( spelling?) plant not the infamous gout weed.
Linda C

Question number 1: in the area you are planting, would the plants you place have the potential to spread into natural areas, or not?

My two biggest spreaders are purple coneflowers and campanula glomerata. The latter has been driving me crazy this spring as I dig out more and more every day, and it seems like the more I rip out, the more it multiplies. Both of these will give you color...one in late spring and one in late summer/fall.

You can't go wrong with obedience plant, either.

I would do a mix of self-seeding flowers and let it go crazy.
You might check into wild flowers that are natives.

I have a front ditch that is maybe 60' x 5' that I have transplanted vinca and oenothera speciosa and larkspur...next will be rudbeckias and echinacea. Already my trimming has been cut in half.

Here are a couple of pictures (clickables):

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of a section of oenothera (pink). The beauty of these flowers is they can be started from seed relatively inexpensively.

They have even broadcast themselves across the road!

What wants to be there? If I let a space go, even with annual mowing I'd end up with a bunch of woody weeds and small trees. There is a park down the street that bushhogs their open spaces once a year, and it's a mess to put it mildly. If that's what happens, I'd seriously consider going directly to trees if the desire is for as little maintenance as possible.

If you aren't getting trees *why not*. Because that is going to have a significant impact on what you can and cannot grow.

I agree with the above post. If you're only going to mow it once a year, you won't have anything other than a weed or tree patch no matter what you plant. Even wildflower gardens require regular weeding for the first few years to keep everything under control until the plants you want to be there are well established.

A lot of the above mentioned plants are very hardy and tough, but with only the annual mowing you'll never see them because the weeds will be so high.

Invasive? Spreading? Out of control in sun, shade, damp or drought?

Comfrey.

Think ajuga is a great choice for something, low, spreading, weed competitive and decorative. You can choose one with variegated foliage or one like Caitlin's Giant that has bigger leaves and blooms or... In my place they compete nicely with weeds and there is very little that can penetrate the mat they form.
Vinca is another choice and has the advantage of being evergreen.

You know, I saw this post yesterday, and didn't respond, but now that I see all these suggestions, I want to. I am not being mean, really, I am not. But, why on earth would you want to just plant yourself a great big mess? With no plan, and nothing but aggressive growers, that is precisely what you will have in very short order, and I shudder to think how hard the work will be for you or someone else to ever bring order, much less beauty, back to the area.

Here's another idea. Why not plant a mixed shrub border? The cost of one ornamental shrub is usually less than the cost of only 3 or 4 perennials, and it will cover a whole lot more ground. Do a little research and choose plants that will add beauty, color and interest throughout the year. This is very realistic! And then plant those with a good mulch around them until they get going and start shading out grasses and weeds. They aren't NO maintenance, but they'll be a whole lot less than this idea in the long run! Check out the shrubs forum. They're really helpful over there.

If nothing else, think about your property value....

Lamiastrum galeobdolon will take over an area. Yellow flowers in May, attractive variegated foliage rest of the season, also through mild winters. It will grow back even after a couple of mowings.

Maximilian's Sunflower. They are not like your typical huge flowered sunflower. They get about eight feet tall and they have yellow blooms in the summer that are maybe two to three inches across. The foliage while they are growing is a deep green and is beautiful. While they are growing however, weeds will grow up between them. When planted dense enough however, nothing ends up surviving beneath the shade they create at soil level. They always come back the next year and they are always a good deal thicker.

The drawbacks are that they don't really kick into high growing gear really until summer. In zone seven, mine are only about two feet high. And.. while they will bloom into December here, once that first frost hits they will look real bad and need cutting back.

If they get too dense, pulling stalks right out of the ground in the place you want them to thin works. It's easy too. For such a sturdy plant you can pull them out of the ground by handfuls with barely a flex of a muscle.

Here is a link that might be useful: wild flower information

Consider being a good land steward. Don't plant a thug.

Also jerusalem artichoke and solidago for yellow flowers late in the fall. Jerusalem artichoke has edible bulbs. Both are difficult to get rid of. Solidago has strong roots and rhizomes so you really need a fork to lift them. The artichoke bulbs form very deep in the soil and when you try to pull them the green top breaks off while the bulb stays where it was and grows a new top. These would need digging with a spade and actually sieving the soil to get rid of the small bulbs. Multiplies rapidly, too.

OP has left the building???

Has anyone mentioned Lamb's Ear yet?

I wouldn't do Chameleon plant as suggested above...it won't just fill in, it will take over the world.

Physostegia will be a good choice.

I'd like to urge the original poster to proceed with great caution! Do your homework before planting anything. Plants in some zones can be beautiful and well behaved while in others it can be an invasive species.

Read through threads like 'Plants you wish you never planted' or threads with 'thugs' or 'invasive' in the titles. Get a feeling for which plants fall into which categories - some are rampant self seeders, some are fast growers but shallow rooted and easy to rip out, others are very deeply rooted or send up shoots 20 feet away from the mother plant.

You must consider property near you as well. Check with your local DNR or a university extension office that can inform you about plants that are a threat to the natural habitat.

A mixed shrub area/trees I think are going to be a very good strategy to consider.

I have a very large property that I'm fighting buckthorn on and trying to plant competing plants. Most of it is shaded by big old oaks and the ones I've had the best luck with so far are ginger, fern, pulmonaria, and rhizome geranium.

Good luck!

I am the original poster.

Many thanks for such thoughtful postings. The area I am describing receives full sun until about 2PM. In early spring much of it can be wet for a few weeks, but it hasn't seemed to cause any problems. I have some ornamental grasses in there that thrive.

I appreciate some of the cautions I received here. I have learned that there is no such thing as "no maintenance". The area is too large for me to weed and frankly I don't have enough expertise to always know what is a weed vs. a young perennial. Then again, weeds can be quite attractive in their own right.

I am leaning towards a some larger plants - perhaps a mix of small trees and bushes with some patches of perennials I know will do well such as monarda.

Anything in the mint family with square stems (Mint, Lamium maculatum 'White Nancy'; Ceratostigma plumbaginoides spreads b underground runners.

My Nepeta/Catmint ("Blue Carpet" and "Dropmore" I think) spread to fill all available space, then self-seed to expand their reach. They seem to be reaching for their Manifest Destiny. To look their best and rebloom most, they benefit from a 1/2 height weed-whacking 2 or 3 times a summer.

Some of the more popular varieties ("Walker's Low" and "Six Hill Giant") are sterile non-seeders. Easier to control but not as economical when you want coverage.

What about hardy hibiscus (hibiscus moschuetos)? I'm a little uncertain if that is enough sun, but it might be.

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Daylilies would work pretty well there. "Ditch" lilies will definitely fill the spot, but there are lots of other colors. GH Wild generally holds a lot of clearances ($3 - $5) I really like Homestead Farms too. They send really nice size plants.

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Lisa

Kurchian....

I cringe when I read of someone's desire to replace weeds and grass with invasive plants. I understand the desire to have something grow without care and provide color and interest, but I haven't heard of anyone who has managed to do that yet. :-) Since I have had more than one battle with unwanted invasives over the years and have read many posts on the forums describing other people's exhausting battles with these type of plants, I can hardly think of a situation in which a property would be 'improved' by adding some of these plants. Once you have them on your property, it seems they rarely actually become an asset but instead, they find a way to become a liability not only to you, but sometimes to your neighbors as well. Then when you try to get rid of them...look out.

If you have a 'contained' area, like between a street, a driveway and a concrete walkway and a building. That is to say something immovable on every side...this could be considered an area that might be safe to plant some invasives to battle it out and hopefully create an area that might take care of itself. But even then, you still have to be careful what you plant because birds and wind can take the seeds into areas off your property. Mint and Lily of the Valley are two plants I have heard have been known to travel under concrete walkways and show up in the grass on the other side. I had a landscape architect here giving advice once and when I expressed a desire to grow blackberries, he laughed. Since I have a small 1/4 acre property, he suggested that I would need concrete barriers that went down three feet into the ground all around where I was going to plant it, or it would take over our property and be a huge problem to get rid of. Mowing grass and weeds once a week, is a piece of cake compared to battling some of these invasive plants once you have them and they start traveling where you don't want them, or they don't perform the way you want them to and you want to remove them.

So...what can you do with this area that you describe as 150 ft from your house, that is about 100ft x 200ft and gets sun until 2pm? Well, it sounds like a great adventure to create something there, but important to know ahead of time what you are getting into. Not quite sure if you are trying to end up with a garden that you would actually care for, or something like a meadow effect? I would start small and try some ideas and see how they do and then duplicate what works out best in other areas. Or start with a complete plan for the whole area, but break it down into smaller parts and go slowly until you get an idea how things are working out.

Trees and shrubs are a great idea for a larger area. If you spend some time investigating, you could come up with a list of them that would give you all season color and interest. You might consider trying a small area for a butterfly garden. Many of those plants will colonize in a respectable manner and are native plants that spread and fill in fairly quickly. Joe Pye Weed, Asclepias, Butterfly Bush to name a few. Coneflowers and Rudbeckia with Monarda, Grasses and Sedums can take care of themselves pretty well. The Asclepias will reseed, the Monarda will spread more than any others. If you are careful to add clumping grasses, rather than runners, you can choose anything that appeals to you and add some perennials and instant easy care garden. Cosmos is an annual that in my Massachusetts garden, comes back on it's own every year and is a welcome addition to my sunny garden beds.

I don't know if you have ever visited Garden in the Woods, in Framingham, but I highly recommend it. They are always trying to establish plantings that take care of themselves in many different conditions. Not only would you be able to see for yourself what they have been able to achieve, but they sell plants and can give you lots of advice too.

Below is a link to one of the threads on this subject that has already been referred to. I see there is also a Part 2 as well, with another 128 posts. [g]

Good luck! :-)
pm2

Here is a link that might be useful: What do you Wish you never planted?

I realize this thread is old, but interesting. Did you plant yet? Spirea is not fancy but very low maintenance and grows quickly. 'Anthony Waterer' is colorful for a long time in the summer. Other spireas provide nice spring colorful foliage as well as blooms. They are a very casual no-fuss look. Bridal Wreath is very dramatic with white spring arching blooms.

which reminds me of the new Kolwitzia (beautybush) 'Dream Catcher' I added to my shrub border this year. gold foliage and arching branches and great fall foliage. Bloooms too.

ALso forsythia is pretty much plant-it-and-forget-it and can fill a lot of ground fast, but kinda boring other than 2 weeks of bloom

Okay, can we pretend this question was about a somewhat dry shade slope (though the flat at the top of the slope is mossy) under a variety of trees? I'd love your suggestions. In the summer, dappled shade at best; without leaves on the trees, mostly sunny. The picture below is of a space adjacent to where I'm talking about and wanting to cover - the space in questino is more or less the same slope, but drier and a more convex slope than concave so it doesn't hold the leaves on as much as this area:

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Are you just looking for a groundcover? If so vinca vine (periwinkle) should work. The regular type is more hardy in my experience than the variegated, and has pretty purple-blue flowers in spring. Wild flowers like trillium, may-apple, wild geranium and jack-in-the-pulpit would also bring spring blooms. Ferns, hostas, astilbes, foxglove, lady's mantle, lily-of-the-valley and dead nettles should also grow there. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Hope that helps.

Obedient plant would be a good choice...not very many weeds would get by that...

Here's what I planted in the back corner of my yard where I wanted invasive plants. I do nothing to the soil now other than leave a layer of leaves on top over winter to break down gradually. You can do that this fall or add organic matter to the bed. Your plants will become "invasive" faster if you enrich the soil with something before you start. Since you've probably got lots of weed seeds laying in wait, I wouldn't till the soil, just layer the compost on top. You'll still need to pull weeds out when you see them. I'm afraid you'll never be rid of them. No perennial can ever crowd out a weed entirely. If I didn't pull out the wild violets in that area, they'd take over in no time. Weeds will always win that war.

These plants all do well with at least 1/2 day of sun, the more the better: mallow, lysimachia (I have Creeping Jenny and the white "goose neck" variety), orange "ditch" daylilies, black-eyed susan, bishop's weed, bee balm, lamium, physostegia (obedient plant), iris, shasta daisies, anemones, forget-me-nots, hostas, oenothera (evening primrose), aster, euphorbia, tickseed, phlox, rose campion, cranesbill, and sedum.

Queen of the Prairie is one that grows tall and wide in my Massachusetts garden. I also have a Beauty Bush in my yard that has grown to 12 feet tall and wide within a 5-year span. Another plant that will spread is the Rugosa rose bush (the kind that grows wild along the seashores of New England). But truly, the most invasive of all is the Black-eyed Susan...it will grow anywhere. I've yanked most of it out of my garden. Happy planting!

I'd check out Prairie Nursery. I've bought a few plants from them and they were very good. These are native plants so they will be very tough. They also have seed mixes and gardens all planned out. Their catalog includes instructions on how to establish the native plants. You will need to weed for the first year or two to allow these plants to establish. Check out their site and request a catalog.

Here is a link that might be useful: Prairie Nursery

I don't think anyone has mentioned Eupatorium coelestinum (hardy geranium). This plant blooms in August/September has very nice foilage gets 36"tall and is a nice blueish purple flower. Problem is it grows and grows and gets wider and wider. I have been pulling it out for years.

corydalis lutea,blooms may thought nov. hard frost; polygonum bistorta superbum, month of may and june, rebloom sept; eupatorium chocolate; cryptotaenia and perilla- chocolate foliage 3 seasons; lysimachia ciliata atropurpurea and gooseneck.

btw, i have them all on craigslist-farm and garden section.
best,
mindy
cotton-arbo retum

persicaria lance corporal, again and again and again.