It is Yellow Archangel. You could contain it or keep some in a pot. Left as is, it will keep spreading indefinitely. You could try to find another more well behaved variegated foliage plant. The Lamium would definitely wreak havoc in a cottage garden imo.

Thank you, Jay.

After spending quite a bit of time looking at online photos last night, I was pretty sure that was going to be the answer.

The area where the Lamium is growing backs up to a ravine that contains large redwoods, ferns and other native plants. It's too steep to be accessible to humans and that's where this plant is heading. Normally, I'd take the time to pull it by hand, but we aren't living here yet and are going back and forth between this new place and our other house which could means a couple of weeks for the Lamium to grow unchecked.

I don't like to use it, but I'm wondering if this is a job for an herbicide like Round-up. Just to get it done and over quickly and to try and keep the Lamium from spreading into the forested ravine.

I think digging them out after the soil is loosened will allow more roots to be removed. I would definitely use a herbicide to prevent them from invading the adjacent natural redwood area with all its native vegetation. Lamium can be eradicated without too much difficulty compared to say Aegopodium podagraria or Ficaria verna.

i agree L is a job for the big guns ...

with aggressive stuff ... you might have to spray .. and then come back in 6 to 8 weeks.. and see if anything reappeared.. and spray again ... etc ...

ken

Thank you both for your help and advice. I'm going to start going after it today. Unfortunately, it's raining this morning, but it's supposed to let up this afternoon. The good news is that because of all the rain we've had these past few days, the ground is nice and soft which should make pulling it from around the plants I don't want to get sprayed fairly easy.

Once it's been sprayed how long before it stops putting out runners? I'm worried that it'll keep growing until the Round-up does its job.

I'm feeling like time is of the essence if there's any hope of keeping it out of the woodland area. If it makes its way into the ravine, there will be no stopping it. There's one area near the edge that isn't very stable ground and getting too close is a safety issue as it's a 50 foot drop, but I can reach it with the sprayer and will be particularly aggressive with my spraying in that spot.

Any suggestions for a ground cover (variegated would be nice) that behaves itself that I can plant there once the archangel is gone?

Repeated glyphosate applications are typical with established perennial weeds. Once a plant has been sprayed it's not going to grow explosively while the chemical works on it.

Thank you for that reassurance, Embothrium. It makes me feel a lot better about the chances for success in getting rid of it.

Alrighty, then. After spending a couple of hours digging that stuff up from around the plants I don't want to spray, I now hate the stuff. How can something so beautiful be so horrible!?

It's done. I even tied myself to a tree so I could go over the edge of the ravine to get some stragglers that I spotted. I'll do a follow-up spray, if necessary, in a few weeks. I hope that will take care of the problem, but I will be vigilant about keeping an eye out for new sprouts in the future.

Since you liked the look but not the spread, once you are sure you have rid the area of this aggressor Lamium 'Herman's Pride' could be a nice alternative. It forms a clump so you would want to put in a grouping of three or more.

Thank you for the suggestion, peren.all. I'll admit I'm a bit leery about planting anything "Lamium" right now, but I'll keep it in mind.

Thought I'd give an update on this battle. We mixed up some Round-up using the recommended ratio on the container. After 19 days, it turned slightly pale. For one day. Then it greened up and bounced back. So, we mixed up a stronger batch of Round-up and sprayed that on two days ago. Today, the yellow archangel looks seriously ill. It's drooping and appears to be turning brown.

But, not all of it. Some of it looks just fine. We were really careful to spray all of it, but maybe we missed some shoots. I'm thinking we'll probably have to spray again in 2 - 3 weeks after we can see what survived the second round of spraying.

That is one tough plant.

I thought I'd give an update on my battle with the Archangel.

It's been almost a year since I first wrote this post. After repeated spraying with Round-up last year, the archangel finally died. I have been vigilante these last 11 months about keeping an eye out for new growth, but have seen no sign of it...until last week.

I spotted a small but healthy patch growing in the same area. Once again, I sprayed (drenched it really) it with Round-up. It's been seven days and I just came in from checking on the plants. If anything, they look healthier and heartier than ever.

Off to mix up another batch of RU and to pull what I can. These plants are hard to reach as they are growing right at the edge of the ravine underneath blackberry canes. I feel like I'm fighting what is eventually going to be a losing battle, but I will keep it up in the hopes of turning the tide.

I believe all of you are discussing Lamiastrum, not Lamium, including 'Herman's Pride', which though a Lamiastrum is not aggressive and is very handsome, forming a polite mound.

Thanks for the update.

It is currently Lamium but synononymous with Lamiastrum. It has changed three times in recent memory but will perhaps stay Lamium now.

All of the plants called Lamiastrum are Lamium.

Well, that should prove a real PITA

It is a real PITA! Discussing plants has become infinitely more difficult, tedious, and confusing.

Each plant now needs a scroll of the history of its name. Like announcing a Duke before a jousting match, "Sir Name Confusion, 3rd son of the Earl of blah blah blah, grandson of the Duke of wasting your time, lord of all lands east of here, and originally known as Bubba the Grand Slayer of Buffets, and known last week as Sir Chews-A-Lot."

LOL Tiffany, good one! It can be a frustrating exercise trying to keep up.

I choose to just ignore it, not playing Simon Sez with plant names. No, your snake plant is not a Dracaena.

What's so sad is that genetics can yield incredible amounts of very useful info but nobody will know what plants they're talking about. If you complain, they'll just say you're not smart like them and you just don't get it so just shut up and fix your labels instead of reading about great new genetic discoveries.