Soapwort
Mexican evening primrose

What can I say? Just don't do it.

Rosefolly

Evening Primrose!

Be Safe, Rach

I'll 'third' that - Evening Primrose!!! I was warned, I didn't listen, and it took ~2 years to get that stuff outta my garden.

I sowed it on purpose down at our lake lot, HOPING it would take over, and (of course) it never did. Go figure ...

I actually have dames rocket in my garden and after 3 years I dont see a problem. It could take a little longer than this to become a bother. I also mostly cut it down after flowering. This may keep it from self sowing. There was Queen Ann's Lace in the garden when I moved here. Not alot but I pulled it out and have not seen any since. I planted Evening Primrose last year.....we will see. Keep in mind these plants may behave very differently furthur north where I live.

Madame Galen Trumpet Vine! I love this vine and its brilliant orange flowers, but the underground runners are incredibly invasive so unless you have a lot of space to let it do its thing, I would stay away from it in zone 8. I wish I had researched this vine before planting it. I just don't have the necessary room to let it grow.

As far as invasiveness goes, it makes mint look positively wimpy.

On the plus side, hummers go crazy for it.

Marilyn

I'll second trumpet vine, any trumpet vine. It's one of the plants the previous homeowner planted that I can't get rid of. The other two would be mint and lemonbalm. Lemonbalm reseeds everywhere. They did leave a few lovely plants, but those other three wear me out.

I blame myself for sowing soapwort and evening primrose. I like them both, but they are spreaders.

My perennial sunflowers and passionflowers both reseed. The passionflowers mostly just spread underground until this past year when the 'possums discovered them. Both of those are fairly easy to yank though.

But, back to chicory, I've actually transplanted some into the yard (the abandoned house behind us has some particularly deep blue-flowering plants) and I'm hoping they stay this time. So far, no luck with the seeds.

Garlic chives! I fell in love with the description in the seed catalogue. Both invasive and hard to pull out.

Another sad case here of sowing Mexican evening primrose. Four years ago and still pulling it out. On the upside, lady in red salvia has proved a good reseeder but easy to pull up when too thick or in the wrong place. Ditto vincas and portulaca. Black-eyed susans from seed (goldsturm) have to be pulled up at the edges every year to keep the runners in bounds, but they're so useful it's not a bad trade-off.

Waaaaahhhhhh! You'all who've posted you were mad at Evening Primrose have stabbed me to the heart! I adore it, both the pink Mexican evening Primrose, and yellow Missourianis (sp?) Evening Primrose.

Well, I see your plant and raise you one; Forget-Me-Not. Pretty for too short a time, goes to seed and comes up yards away from it's little black seeds.
GH-

Okay, I take it the consensus is to avoid Evening Primrose, except for GH of course. ;-)

I guess I'll give my choices a whirl and see what happens. Perhaps deadheading will keep most of them in bounds. But I so suck at keeping up with that chore....hence all the Queen Ann's Lace I just pulled up a few days ago.

black eyed susans is my only 'kind of' regret. They came up everywhere this past summer (which was their second year in my gardens). I planted the pink primroses in the mounds at the front of my driveway and I really hope they do well and spread there, as long as my daylilies can still come up through them!! (and the iris and roses can survive them!) Isn't it funny, though, how when we want something that is usually invasive to take over a certain area, it ususally doesn't?
My husband smothered my forget me nots with wood mulch this past late spring/early summer. I don't think they'd had a chance to go to seed and they had only just bloomed for the first time *sniff* It remains to be seen whether they will return.
I think that perhaps the most 'invasive' thing I have (I don't mind too much with this one because they are small and very easy to dig up and give away) are the grape hyacinth. WOW do those things multiply quickly!!

Check your state's invasive species listing. Queen Anne's lace is listed as a 'threat' and dame's rocket is on the 'watch' list.

Both of these are very common, cottage style perennials, valued for long color and their ease of reseeding. But that ease of reseeding is what makes them problematic as well. And it is not necessarily just the simple fact of your removing excess plants that mitigates the situation. Unless you are diligent in removing ALL the spent flowers and allowing NO reseeding, you could be contributing to a wider problem than just restraining thuggish plants in your own garden.

There are just so many other great plants than can be incorporated into the garden that do not pose any invasive potential that it is irresponsible to include those that are considered threatening.

Here is a link that might be useful: NC invasive species list

I planted dame's rocket a few years ago. The 2nd year it went insane because I did not deadhead. The 3rd year I deadheaded and only ended up with one plant.
I was wondering how chicory did in our climate. I've never seen it growing wild here. It's one of my favorite plants.

GGG

do you think most of these plants would have the same "thug" behavior this far north???
i can hardly get trumpet vine to grow here, for instance ...phyl

I have never minded pulling out reseeders because most of them are easy to remove from where you don't want them but the ones I simply detest are the underground runners. I would have to put Obediant plant and gooseneck loostrife in that category. It has taken me 3 years to get rid of gooseneck loosestrife from two gardens. I love the flower and it is now back in the woods where it seems to be more under control and provides a nice white contrast.

My one reseeder that really surprised me was larkspur - I find that plant EVERYWHERE but it is just too pretty that I will never try and get rid of it. I just pull it out from where I don't want it - same with most of the other reseeders - queen annes lace - perilla - blackeyed susans. I have tried and tried to get dames rocket started and have not had any luck but I will try again this year......

Lynne

Well, I've never planted Queen Anne's Lace on purpose - it grows wild by my old house (next to protected wetlands). I was forever pulling that stuff out! I love it, but it definitely takes over if you aren't careful.

And my brown eyed susans have never, even re-seeded...

Not seeded, but the plant I regret having planted is wisteria. It's lovely, but it's also a thug and it started to demolish (I kid you not) my fence and the little house where we house the gas bottles. It had to go. I've been trying to kill it for the last couple of years, but have been unsuccessful so far. My word of advice is to plant it away from any other structure or underground pipes and make sure it can't get to where it can make damage. Other than that, it's a stunning climber. And I was a silly, inexperienced gardener when I planted it...

Eduarda

I guess chicory isn't a real popular cultivated type plant then. No one has really mentioned it other than to say they are curious. Hmmmm....

I guess I'll give it a try. How much worse than nutsedge, bermuda grass or wild onions can it be?

No growing wisteria here for me or trumpet vine. Think I'll steer clear of the mexican primrose as well.

I tried to grow chickory & expected it to reseed, but it didn't come back the next year. I didn't replant because it was rather weedy looking, more so that what I see on the roadsides. I guess those on the roads get trimmed back often, maybe I should have tried that. I've grown dame's rocket for several years with no problem, it reseeds, but only enough to replace the plants that die. I would never plant Mex evening primrose again. I have looseneck goosestrife, but it is not in a hospitable place & has not spread at all.

Same here - I haven't posted in quite sometime. I made the mistake of planting some Queen Anne's Lace and I don't know if I'll ever be able to get rid of all of it. I hope to maybe get out this weekend since we haven't had that much seriously cold weather and I can see the area it is growing it very easily right now, get a shovel and just start digging and pulling it out. I too love the look of it, but it just takes over. Now as to the forget-me-nots, they do reseed like crazy, but they are such a welcome treat so early in the spring, I just don't think I would ever want to live without them. I just pull up the ones I don't want, let it bloom until it starts going to seed and then just get out there and pull it up. Dames Rocket can be a bother sometimes too, but I wouldn't call it invasive. It's just a good reseeder, which I think is what a lot of us want. Now beebalm on the other hand, jeesh does it go crazy or what! But the bees love it, so I'll always try to keep some around.

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday and are now dreaming sweet dreams about our gardens!

Mel

Wysteria was planted on our property by the previous owner. Wysteria, kudzu, and poison ivy vie to be the first to reach the top of surrounding trees and a telephone pole. We tried cutting the kudzu and wysteria back last year, but some of it is so thick we can't even get to it (besides I'm afraid snakes might live in there). The electric company came through early last spring and defoliated the right-of-way 25' on either side of the road with some kind of herbicide like super duper roundup. it didn't stop any of those vines. Actually, I think they enjoyed not having other plants to compete with.

rose campion and shasta daisy. apparently I planted the wrong kind of daisy. majorly invasive. rose cam[ion is pretty while its blooming then yukky foliage and also a major self sower if you don't dead head in time.

Never had a problem with dame's rocket, though I do dead-head mine after flowering. Planting Queen Anne's Lace was a BIG mistake though, can't get rid of it. Stay away from chives, that was another mistake of mine. Even worse are sweet violets. Some other reseeders that are sometimes a little too prolific but I still love are forget-me-nots (the annual variety) and nigella or love-in-the-mist. I didn't plant blackeyed susans but they have found their way to my garden but they aren't too annoying yet.

I'm not sure yet but I think I am going to regret planting Morning Glories last year. I read on here somewhere that they can become invasive. I wanted a quick fix to the ugly side of my neighbors fence in my back yard but I think I may regret it. Not to mention they got rust bad last year. I actually thought about planting Queen Anne's Lace but after reading all those negative posts about it I think I better not.

I've grown gooseneck loosestrife and it tended to be invasive, also dames rockets, but I haven't had any problems keeping it under control. I made the mistake of
planting vinca major. I needed some ground cover close to a creek in the back yard. Talk about invasive...I've been pulling out for 3 years and haven't made any progress getting rid of it yet. I planted morning glories in the wrong place and battled it all summer. I have chickory to plant this spring. Maybe I should rethink that!
Daisy

I have the regular purple Morning Glories everywhere. They look great but they are swallowing my yard. I wish the blue ones would resead everywhere. The hard part is you don't know what color ir will be until the vine is huge and good luck trying to find the base of the right plant to pull out.
Wormy

Dame's Rocket - no problem
Put round up on the pink primrose and the soapwort (Bouncing Bet)! My native passionflower, passiflora incarnata, is beautiful but travels underground and is kind of taking over as well.