I have been trying to get rid of it for the last 2 years, it is truly invasive as are most of the lysmachia family. I had to dig out a whole bed and virtually sift the soil to get it out, and I'm still seeing it pop up here and there as every little bit of root sprouts a new plant. It crowded out everything I tried to grow with it.

I still have some but I've banished it to the end of the woods where I can enjoy it and not worry about it taking over the garden. It's being kept busy fighting it out with orange hemerocallis ditch lilies and a beautiful but invasive chrysanthemum.

I wouldn't plant it unless you have some way to contain it, like sinking a 5 gal bottomless pot in the garden and planting it inside. Kind of like mint; if you can keep it corraled, it's wonderful. If not, it's a pain in the patoot.

Thank you for the advice, I'm discovering this! I bought some for 50 cents at a plant sale, a lady who sells it every year. I love her sales as you can get some great plants for very inexpensive, but I have bought a few items from her that I regret! This might be one of them.

I also wish I never planted it. Been digging it out for past 4 years.I have learned to read about plants before I plant them NOW>

I have a few lysmachias; if it is the plain green one (puncata) your talking about then yes very invasive and hard to get rid of, as are the ground cover types (nummularia). However, some of the variegated cultivars of puncata are pretty easy to live with....I've got 'Golden Alexander' and 'Alexander', which can spread some but nothing like the species (spreads about like monarda for me) and are very pretty.
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And another one that I can't get to survive no matter what I do and I just adore it.
Lysimachia Atropurpureum 'Beaujolais'
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Go figure!
Flora

The gooseneck I have I think is also called loosestrife, but I could be wrong. It's the white variety, here's a picture of a clump about three weeks before blooming - it's all that bushed out foliage behind the foxglove.

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Purple Loosestrife is completely illegal in Nebraska. Beautiful but not worth the fine!

MeMo

I don't grow the gooseneck, but last summer I decided to get rid of my Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker' because it spread and seeded waaaay too much. Now the trick will be finding a plant with foliage as beautiful as the Firecracker, lol.

If you want to replace your gooseneck with something that looks somewhat similar, how about a white Veronicastrum or Veronica (like 'Icicle')?
CMK

christinmk - I think I will try to get rid of it because it is just TOO aggresive. I am going to have to look up Veronica because I keep hearing about it but I don't know what that plant looks like. Have any pictures? I'm thinking I might try replacing it with monarda, although I've had a hard time getting that to reseed. I think I'm disturbing the soil too much because I rake the debris out of my garden beds each spring. This year I tried to be extra careful just to get leaves and dead flowers from last year so I could encourage some volunteering. Only trouble is I have tons of rudbeckia in there that need NO HELP reseeding! LOL***

I really wish I had taken more pictures of my garden with my veronicas. I also love the look of the gooseneck but was afraid of it! I have blue, pink purple and white .the bees love them and if I recall correctly they bloom a long long time then I trim them back to get a rebloom. My favorite is my pale lilac kind, I think its called Cinderella. Nice picture of your garden quilt mommy!

Are all Lysimachias commonly called 'Gooseneck' in the US? Over here it's only used for L clethroides. I'm interested to know which one quilt_mommy is asking about.

I love the looks of the bent gooseneck flowers and added some to my garden from a friend's. She warned me they spread aggressively so I put them in a large pot in the ground. Have had them for two years and they have stayed in the pot. I also deadhead them so don't worry about seeding.

mnwsgal - that is an idea, you say they did well for you in a pot? Maybe I will try that because I do really like gooseneck, the foliage especially though the mass of white swooping flowers is so pretty too, but I don't want a whole garden full of it! LOL*

Lilyfinch - thank you about the picture! I've been working towards that cottage feel for the past 4 years since we've been in our home...I'm still fairly new to gardening but I feel like I'm getting there. :)

-quilt_mommy, Veronicas are a lovely group. They add such interesting texture to the garden with their spiky flowers. Only thing I could say against them is most tend to get ratty looking foliage after blooming. Here is a link to some pictures: Veronica 'Icicle' Pictures

There are a number of white Salvias that might work well as a replacement too.

The only picture I have is of a Veronicastrum with Monarda. The veronicastrum is a pale pinkish color, but there are some plain white kinds available, if you wanted to stick with white.
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I have collected seed from one Monarda plant before (cut back all the rest before I remembered I wanted to collect seed from them, LOL!!). If I recall right it takes quite a long time for the seeds to ripen- until mid to later fall in fact.
CMK

christinmk - WOW what a beautiful picture! Veronica looks very similar to me as obedient plant...I have that in white in my garden and adore it. I am not particular about having white in there, and the lavendar shade you show here is lovely and so delicate.

I think this year I'm going to start some Monarda from seed AND buy a few from the garden center and see if the double whammy will get them going for me! LOL* I am going to stake off the spot where I plant them too, maybe if I leave that little patch alone next spring I'll have better luck.

Thank you all so much for your input!

The gooseneck has done well in my pot. It gets cut back after first bloom for some rebloom.

I grow many veronica as well but the dried up foliage has me looking for something to replace them. This spring I'm going to remove v. 'Fairytale' and replace it with agastache 'Firebird'.

Flora-UK, No, it is the same here. Only Lysimachia clethroides is called gooseneck loosestrife.

I have had a love-hate relationship with this plant for years. It is beautiful--nothing else, veronicas etc., has that S curve in the blossom. Love it!

But what a nightmare in the garden. It will certainly climb out of any pot it's planted in after a few years--the pot just slows it down. Then not only does it spread everywhere, it comes up in the middle of other perennials.

When I finally decided it had to go, it probably took almost ten years for the last bit to stop appearing. And I had to toss a number of desirable perennials that had become infested. That hurt. I would not be surprised to see it reappear tho....

Strangely, I had a big vigorous patch of this (about eight feet by five feet) and decided I did not like it; I just yanked it out as best I could by hand (it took about an hour), turned the soil over, planted right into it, and then picked out a couple of new sprouts as they arose from time to time for a season.

And that was it.

Not sure why it was so easy to get rid of for me when others have such a hard time.

Ya know, I really think it has got to be regional the issues with this plant. I would call it aggressive but not necessarily invasive, but I keep hearing nightmare stories about it from other gardeners. I do just love the foliage but I think it might be too much for my garden, we shall see. I have heard this spreads by seed and by runner, and I'm thinking the runners must be what creep up into perennials, though I haven't had that experience myself. I mean, in my experience even roses have a tendency to shoot runners up into my other plants. I don't know, I guess at this moment for me the jury is out on this plant.

I am watching my plants in their pot for any spread over. Also I will most likely divide and repot before that happens. Hope that works.

O-Oh! I planted a goosneck last fall. Well, looks like there will be some work to do this year to get rid of it.
Oh well, live and learn, and do your homework before planting :).
~Natalie

I started with three plants I planted in late summer to early fall in 2009. The spring of 2010 I had about 75 plants. I just looked at them today and it appears I will have close to 300 plants this year! They have multiplied by a factor of 100 in 2 years! They are planted on the north side of my house as a background behind my hydrangeas. I have to say I like them and hope they spread all along the backside of my house. I noticed last year the butterflies really like them, so, if you like butterflies plant some. I can see that they will be very "prosperous" to put it mildly.