OH NO!! I knew when I saw your title and your name is was going to be about verbena bonriensis.

I envy you. Call me crazy, but I do. You've got to have some supernuclear radiation mongo soil there.

"supernuclear radiation mongo soil" Ha! I like that phrase!

Karen

It's like that Gilligans Island episode where they get the irradiated vegetable seeds. That's the type of Verbena bonariensis seeds you have, along with supernuclear radiation mongo soil!

Gilligan's Island, important for cultural literacy and gardening analogies in the USA!

LOL! I just knew it too, when I saw your title, that it was going to be about the "verbena-on-a-stick"!

Funny, I read so many articles/blogs where folks say it doesn't reseed as much as they would like it to --- what up with yours?

PV

I have a plant like that, only I didn't plant it.. I inherited it when I bought this house.

It's called creeping bellflower and its the biggest nuisance I've ever encountered. I've yanked, I've pulled, I've round-uped, I've even torched and STILL the @&^@$%^#& things keep coming back. They even killed MINT.

I feel your pain.

Beck, I'm with you for creeping bellflower being the worst. I don't think it re-seeds because I have been pulling them for years, but I have seen their runners. It 'ran' from the house behind ours and it runs along the entire eastern side of the house. It is now creeping around the front and is coming up through the stones of our front patio. On the other hand, I planted verbena bonariensis once, and saw a single plant from re-seeds last year. I don't expect I'll have any this year. Karen, you must have super-soil!!

I think it does both... the first year, when I didn't know better, I let it go to seed and each stalk drops about 500,000 seeds.
Yesterday I was pulling some and I have runner "roots" that were well over a foot long.

I also have a rose that sent a runner under a sidewalk and sprouted over 4' away.... I swear one of these days its going to talk and ask for blood.

sounds like my battle with crown vetch. I had to cover the bed with weed plastic and mulch to kill it. The season did it I still saw some sprouts sneak around the edges and pulled them. It took 2 whole seasons with the plastic to kill it.

This year I yanked out all the plastic and I am praying some does not decide to come back. It even tried growing in the grass!

I had to start the whole garden bed over just because I was a novice and did not realize I planted 2 of the worst plants ever!! They were not even that pretty.

Karen

A friend of mine is battling crown vetch. I told her to do just what you are, the black plastic and mulch. Hope it works for you, and hope it works for her!

Karen

What, you've never heard of "supernuclear radiation mongo soil?" And most DEFINITELY on the Gilligan's island ref...you saw that spider, right?