I know what you're talking about. I had an infestation a couple years ago that showed up out of nowhere. It also has something in it that prevents other plants from sprouting and growing in the places where it grows. It still pops up in my beds and I just pull it out. I don't shake off the soil from it's roots though because it think it has something like the root nodes on nut grass that will sprout if they fall back into the soil. I pull them out and put them in the trash. I don't even compost them because it's that hard to kill. I'm sure if you burned it the smoke would cause it to grow on the side of your house. The only way I have found to control it is to pull it out, keep pulling it out wherever it sprouts and pull it out some more. It's a garden menace. Cheryl

I don't know what it is, either, but I have it all over! I've tried pulling, but most of the time it just ends up ripping, and not getting the little 'bulb' end. I was going to try spraying it - sorry to hear that hasn't worked for you. Maybe someone else will have an easy solution! :)

From what I've seen/read, it's an annual weed that spreads by seeds and cuttings. If you mow it with a mulching lawnmower, it spreads quickly. I'd try controlling it as much as you can this fall and put down a pre-emergent towards the end of each season to keep any seeds from sprouting.

It sounds like dayflower. The pretty blue flowers tempt you to let it stay, but it will take over. I don't have much trouble with it reseeding because I use a thick layer of oak leaves as mulch, but do have to be on the lookout for it in places where the mulch is thin and pull every little plant I see. If it has grown long enough to form a clump and whole clump has to be dug out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dayflower on google ...

RoseLee,

That is it!

You are right, I fell to the temptation and let if grow. Fortunately, the bed it is in is small.

So her is my plan of attack. I will dig and pull again, then I will put down a heavy layer of mulch.

Thanks to all for your help.
Sigrid

I've only had this in a couple of beds, but have discovered if I dig the bed where this stuff is coming up while the leaves are very small-- about 1" to 2"-- then I can easily get the entire plant, root nodes and all, out of the ground. The corresponding root and root node are only about 2" long. Bag the uprooted plantlets and toss them in the garbage. You may have to keep at it; if the plants get bigger than that, then they are very difficult to kill. It may help to keep the plant so short it doesn't form flowers if you miss the seedling stage. (Hah)

I think I got rid of the previous infestation in about one year, with minimal effort, by digging the thing when it is tiny. Then put a couple of inches of pine bark mulch on top of the bed so there is not dirt showing! That was about five years ago. Think maybe I didn't try Roundup because it was in a bed of edible plants.

It showed up in the hell strip this summer, and I so wanted to let it grow, because it doesn't need watering and the blue flowers are pretty, even if the plant gets lanky. Alas, since you already know it's invasive!

I fell for those charming little blue flowers too. We can be such suckers sometimes, can't we?

Uggh! I HATE this stuff. It showed up after Ike, guess the flood waters brought it in. That and bindweed which I'm also fighting daily. It is easier to pull when it's small but I never seem to catch it at that stage.
Tally HO!

I pull it as part of my weed routine where I don't want it to grow.

OMG I fell for it this year! It's in a narrow bed but that bed is full of interesting plants. I'll need to be surgical....yikes! It's flowering now and sadly it looks lovely under horsetail and the rose Ducher

Thank YOU All

c

If its spiderwort you're talking about, I love it. Mine have always been in shade and they stay in clumps that I divide and spread around in shady areas. I have not noticed any growing in the grass. (so far)

At my old house in Coppell, it stayed nice and green all winter long. Its hard to find flowers for shade. These were nice to have around.

Melva, I was wondering about the relationship between dayflowers and spiderworts also since they have similar characteristics. So I looked up spiderwort on google. A link on the Wikipedia page for spiderwort,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradescantia

took me to the page below. Spiderworts and dayflowers are of the same family, commelinaceae, which includes thousands of species including 'wandering jew'.

A friend that lives near Seguin has a slightly different variety of dayflower on her sandy property. It has hairy leaves, lighter blue flowers, blooms beautifully in the spring and with dry weather is dies back.

It's good to know that there are varieties that are evergreen, mannerly and bloom in the shade. Thank you Melva.

Here is a link that might be useful: Commelinaceae family ....

Well, that clears up something I have been confused by as the dayflower that grows for me (unwanted, of course) is easily pulled up and does not come back where I have pulled it out.

Same here. I had day flower in the ally and it was well behaved and was a welcome plant back on the ally side of my hedge. It looked great and did not spread to where I worked a garden. Go figure.