All mints are very invasive. You may want to dig them now asap out before they overrun the garden. You can plant them in containers. What type of vinca do you have? The varigated type often seen in containers is considered a foliage plant & treated as an annual here, but I have seen it return when it was in the ground & take a foothold in some gardens. Or do you have vinca minor/major? - V. minor/major is an evergreen groundcover, good in shady areas. It has medium/large blue flowers in the spring.

I keep my mints in pots. They die back considerably. I clean them out every other year or so, taking a few white roots and spacing them in the pot with new soil. I would try to dig them out. If they haven't spread much, you may get it all. I've had some escape and I've been able to dig them out.
Grandpa otts morning glory was a mistake for me. Very beautiful flower but seeds too much.

Also ranunculus "Popcorn". Very pretty foliage but runs over other plants.

Yikes! What's wrong with Liriope? I just planted 10 of them and like the way they look. Will they get out of control?

I regret planting a New Dawn climbing rose on a fence that runs along my neighbors driveway. The rose grew like a monster and was attacking my neighbors everytime they got out of their car. I couldn't keep it reined in so I ended up removing it, This is a case of my planting something in the wrong place. Live and learn.

Morning glories. I fell in love with the heirloom "Grandpa Otts" and planted only six vines last year.
They bloomed and seeded like crazy and now they have totally invaded my garden beds.
I hear there is a variety called "heavenly blue" which is sterile. I wish I had planted that one instead.

The vinca I have planted is Myrtle vinca minor and Dwarf Blue Periwinkle vinca minor -- so I guess I am OK. Thanks for the info! I'll dig those mints up, too. I am considering replanting them in that goofy area between the curb and the sidewalk out in front of our house. I figure it will only be able to spread in that contained area because it is surrounded by cement. Should smell good when people walk on it.

A number of people on the Southern Garden forum complained that the Liriope was invasive. Someone said the varigated type, however, is not. This is the kind I have. Guess I got lucky again. Anyway, you may want to check out the posts on that forum. And, who knows, maybe it's not invasive in our region???

BTW -- my regret is a large Maple tree. Actually, I inherited it when I bought my house. It really is a large old magnificient treet. But those seed pods travel everywhere and spring up all over my yard, the neighbors' yards. YUK!!! The nincompoop that lived here before us let one grow up right inside a rose of sharon. We had to cut it down but it split the bush in half. And since we didn't dig out the root, all these damn shooeters are growing up from the stump.

Lazy neighbors of mine don't pull them out and let them grow up every which way along the fence line. Egads!

Sugar Magnolia, I put in a 'tiny' plant of Melissa Lemon Balm (also in the mint family but didn't know it at the time) in a small area... & within a couple of years it has landed & spread all over the place - of at least a 50 foot radius of its original spot, as well as growing in the grass now. Not only does it spread by its roots, but there must be air borne seeds for it to land here, there, & everywhere.
I pulled out the green lilirope because instead of mounding, it grew upright ~ all tall & scraggly & looking like unmowed grass. Later on I was pulling out 'babies' so it was somewhat invasive. A friend of mine has the varigated lilirope & it looks great as a tufted arching clump & doesn't seem to be a problem in spreading haphazardly.

Perennial sunflowing - my mother gave me a clump, and now I have a lot, in several different places.

I didn't plant it, but I keep digging it out - running bamboo planted next to my foundation.

I put my mints in pots, and sunk them in the ground, hoping to keep them under control. I need to pull them up and keep the roots from speading. They are aggresive here, so dig them quick.

I have the varigated lilirope, and it hasn't seeded.

One type of nepeta I have reseeds nicely, meaning it is nice to have extra plants, but still is easy to pull out if I don't want it.

Many invasive plants are dependant on growing conditions, so what is invasive in the south probably will not be here. I don't know the official definition of invasive, but in my book it means that it spreads rapidly, and is extremely difficult to erradicate.

I had problems with Hotyuna (chamealeon plant) in moist situations. It looks nice, but is IMPOSSIBLE to remove all of it, and it grows back with a vengance.

Same with gooseneck loostrife. I put in a small (1 qt) plant 2 years ago, and have been battling with it since. It spreads all over, and has roots that break easily. It keeps coming back every time I pull it.

Joe 'live and learn' DeRosa

Some Chinese lantern plant that grew all over the garden and spread out to the lawn like crazy. A "gift" from a friend who said she had plenty to share... now I know why! More than a dozen trips out pulling the roots out of the lawn.
Mint will take over, Mint will take over, Mint will take over
Try planting it in a pot and putting it in the garden, so it will be easy to water. But watch it doesn't grow out of the holes in the bottom of the pot! I leave it out in the winter and it always come back, couldn't kill it if I wanted to.

IVY !!!! There are times when I swear I hear it breathing.

calamintha, a mint relative.

anemone ranuculoides which was supposed to be nemerosa - purple leaves and chrome yellow flowers might be very well in their place, but it was supposed to be a pastel garden...it does flourish so.

Well, I ripped out the mint and planted it between the curb and sidewalk. The bed is surrounded by cement and I hope it fills that bed because I am tired of looking at the darn weeds there... and I don't want to plant grass... boring. Anyway, I figure it'll withstand people walking through it on occassion if it's even half as hard to kill as many of you have experieinced.

Another regret -- yellow plum tomatoes, indeterminate var. Indeterminate??? The thing is a monster. I think it is the size of my early girl, red plum, and cherry tomatoe plants combined! Worse yet, the tomatoews are tiny like a cherry tomtaoe or grape tomatoe and has little flavor!@^*&@#*()

I thought the same about yellow pear that I got from Burpee. Plus the fruit dropped off at the slightest disturbance. Pretty though. Still my son likes them so I thought it would be fun to grow these on a teepee or some sort of tunnel trellis for the kids. Never got around to that project.
The farm on Black Oakridge road in Wayne sells them by the pint if anyone is interested. They also sell something called black cherry but it is not the true black cherry and tastes nothing like it.

Liriope muscari "Big Blue" - the first 3 years it was fine, but exploded after year 4. Huge wide clumps; impossible to move; hate them!!!!!!!!

Lysimachia punctata, yellow loosestrife; extremely invasive. I think I finally got rid of it the 4th year in the full sun bed. I moved it to full shade, where it still spreads!

Artemisia vulgaris, "Oriental limelight" - OMG; the thug of all thugs.

Moving lily-of-the-valley from full shade to full sun. I'm still ripping it out after 4+ years.

Morning Glory, "Orange Noah" - hummer magnet, but a heavy reseeder.

IVY AND MINT! mymacca: You cracked me up! I, too, think it's out to get me and have dreams about being strangled by it! Mine is the Hedera Helix common ground ivy -- I'm in zone5 near Chicago - it has choked everything and now I have to use a product called 'Vine-X' and paint every little twig of it (after pulling it until I find where it is sprouting from) and it'll eventually go away. But we're talking a LONG time here! And also BOSTON IVY! NEVER NEVER NEVER PLANT BOSTON IVY UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR HOUSE TO FALL DOWN! My husband is out there sandblasting the brick and sanding the wood siding after having pulled the 15 year-old mess out. Birds nest in it and poop all over the rest of my gardens. Mint - only in pots for SURE.

Morning glory!
It's funny they didn't become invasive until this year, the 3rd year I've been planting them. I didn't even enjoy the blooms, which I do like, bec the groundhog devoured them. Now I've got literally thousands coming up everywhere. I gave up pulling them, hope the groundhog eats 'em.
beware.
ellenr

Morning Glory...the bane of my existence!!!
This is my second year gardening and I didn't even know they were there until this year when they totally consumed my roses and clematis!
No amount of yanking gets rid of them. Apparently, if only a fragment of the root survives they'll just keep growing!
I've seriously considered digging everything up and using weed killer.
Anyone have any solutions?>(

re, the groundhog... ummm he can eat them now but that is how you get 1000s of new ones all over, no?

If your morning glory is growing back from the roots, consider you might have bindweed. Yikes. Sorry about that. That would be a case for roundup.

Here is a link that might be useful: bindweed

Plant Delight Nursery has 'Clumping Mint' (Pycnanthemum 'Eagle Rock') and they are claiming it isn't invasive. I purchased one this fall, so will see.

Mint and Rudbeckia. I finally have the mint down to an acceptably amount (I do like it in ice tea)and have spent the last 2 years digging up the R. which is VERY invasive.

Bradford pear tree! (My biggest mistake.) Since I planted two of them back when I didn't know anything about trees, I've learned they're overused, invasive, weak-wooded and short-lived. Bleah! Plus, the blossoms smell like rotting fish, blooming in spring when you can finally open the windows and let the fresh air in, except you CAN'T because the darn trees STINK!

Good thread, Sugar Magnolia. Thanks!

For me, it was a shasta daisy that was really an ox-eyed daisy. Although it has the dasies I desired, they seemed just not as nice flowering as most of the shastas I've seen. The flowers were smaller and not as dense. Then.... it reseeded everywhere!!!!!! I'm still fighting the seedlings. Since then I've gotten shasta daisy 'becky' and propagated my shasta daisy 'supra' - much nicer flowers and does reseed everywhere to the point of drowning out other flowers.

Ellen

How long does it take before the perrenial sunflower and black eyed susan becomes invasive? I just planted some this fall. I think they are pretty flowers and I don't mind some reseeding. I plan on moving in 10 years so hopefully these plants won't be too hard to manage during thsat time. I hope the sunflowers travel under the fence into my sloppy neighbors yard and overtake the brush and posion ivy that he never seems to clear away from the fence line.

With the black eyed susans, I planted them through holes in landscapers ground cover (I forget what thsat stuff is called -- you put it on the ground and cover with rocks or mulch to keep weeds from growing). Anyway, my thought was that this would help to control the flowers from sperading all over the place???

My groundcover roses. MONSTERS! Impossible to kill. Pricks are like surgical needles. I have planted them six years ago (my husband wanted to have roses). I still have one - hope to "re-plant" it next spring. The only problem - they are very hardy, very strong and survive everything: 3 times a year prunning, japanese beetles and my curses. Flowers are very pretty and fragrant, but bushes take too much space, branches can grow 5 feet easily (during one season).

Other mistake - blackberries. Still coming after I removed them 3 years ago.

Mint? Actually I like it in my lawn. Nice smell after mowing, very refreshing. I planted mint by my rock wall because someone suggested that mice hate mint. They don't care at all! But my neighbors definitely don't like it!

I "inherited" these when buying my house, but Rose of Sharon plants are everywhere, w/ their huge seed pods. I spend too much time this year pulling baby Rose of Sharon plants -- the flowers are nice, but not that nice, and I've been pulling the bushes/trees out all fall.

I have a ground cover that my neighbor gave me that I think she called Edelweis and spreads like wildfire! The leaves are heart shaped and has a white stalk like flower once a year. No matter how much I pull out, it comes storming back!

Well, I didn't plant it but on the other side of the rock wall is some sumac, not the poison kind.

It spreads like mad, and the worst thing is the roots are so weak that when you pull a shooter, it rips off in your hand!

I pull the shooters on my side of the wall almost every other week. I am considering a ninja style raid over the wall late one evening. Wish me luck. I sure hope the old neighbor isn't much of a shot anymore....

well its great to hear you have invasion of certain plants in NJ as I have the opposite (exception pachysandra); nothing grows for me here. i think the old lady who owned the house previously is telling me to move out but back in LI I had chinese lantern. funny thing is the first year I nurtured the heck out of them and the growth was dissapointing-no flowers, hence no lanterns; the second year like OurBackYard said, they took over everything!! We were not at the LI house often so when I went back there would be another battalion of them. however, I had planted them for my husband who is sick with cancer as he had fond memories of his grandmas lantern physalis and I didn't have the heart to destroy them just yet. this fall, the lanterns were pure orange glow with bright yellow die back foliage just like I remember as a kid when we had a meadow at the end of our block which has since been built up with condos. He enjoyed the display but I do hate to think what will come next spring-these things are worse than pachysandra as far as root spread-they do invade the lawn!! although pachy is nice under the trees in winter and it does seem to break up the clay soil-clearing an old pachy bed seems the best for for setting up perrenials w/o too much soil lightening needed.

I ran across this thread when I was researching this new plant I bought called, "Artemsia Oriental Limelight".

Well, I pretty know much what to do with Oriental Limelight.

I couldn't help but notice that the original post asked if Mexican Petunia was hardy in zone 6?

The answer is no. It is hardy in zone 8.

There is a "Plains Ruellia" that is native to the USA. These ruellias are cold hardy, but not invasive like Mexican Petunia.

Google "High Country Gardens" to find a catalog with cold hardy, drought tolerant plants. The Plains Ruellia is in that catalog. High Country Gardens is based out of Santa Fe, NM. (zone 5)
Dwarf Mexican Petunia probably makes a nice summer annual up north.

I planted the large bush Mexican Petunia almost two months ago, and it hasn't bloomed yet, so I don't know how well it would perform as an annual up north.

I'm in San Antonio, Texas, where it is hot, hot hot !!! LOL

I couldn't help but laugh to see Mexican Petunia way up in NJ. I thought it was something that was only sold in Texas and the Southwest. (Something that we grow because nothing else grows. )

The lavender blue color of Mexican Petunia is electric and unique....at least in the South West. Blue just isn't a common flower color here. We'll take all we can get.

As for finding a heat loving, evergreen, non woody, foliage plant, approx 2 foot tall that thrives in our heat, I will have to try something other than the Artemsias. (I don't want gray or silver, there's too much of that in Texas)

Hello pricklypearsatx. Welcome to NJ. We do get a few southern specialties for sale up here in bloom such as Bougainvillea. Of course it will never look like it does for you but makes a nice hanging basket.

There are a few names here I haven't seen in a long time.

My mother-in-law gave me some tradescantia about three years ago (have no idea which variety- tall, purple flowers) - I loved it at first-the flowers absolutely pulsate and glow first thing in the morning-
But now it's taking over the world-I keep digging it up and it keeps coming back-
If any of you want some, I will put lots to the curb!

PP, I haven't found that the HCG plants do well for me at all in terms of winter survival. Maybe people in South Jersey with sandy soil would have better luck, but they've died here in a raised bed well amended with sand and grit.

The previous owner had a large Virginia creeper bush in the backyard. We purchased the house 3 years ago. I'm pulling up mini shoots in my garden bed in the front of the house! This vine is all over.

In a similar vein, I planted a golden raintree (Koelreuteria paniculata) from The Arbor Day Foundation about 2 years ago. Am I going to regret the brown seedpods when this tree hits maturity? I am debating digging it back up and growing it in a pot as a bonsai plant. Anybody on the NJ Gardening forum have experience with this tree?

Thanks!

I have a Koelreuteria and yes, it does seed around quite a bit. Nice tree, though; and it's not hard to pull up the seedlings. Not sneaky the way, say, Lemon Balm is.

I got mine from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as a membe bonus in about 1982; it lived in a pot for a couple years, then I planted it in a shady spot when I bought my house and it leaned way over trying to get to the sun; then I dug it up and moved it to a better spot but by the time I got it out of the ground I don't think it had many roots left; it sulked for a couple years but now it's growing again and looking nice. They are tough, tough trees.

WW

Thanks, WW. I guess Koelreuteria is a 3-time winner -- a tree with interesting leaves, flowers, and seedpods.

-- Tony

I curse the day we didn't pull up the first bamboo stalk we saw. It is everywhere now and even coming through our brick patio. It cannot be stopped.... :)

How about Lamiastrum galeobdolon (Yellow Archangel). I hate the stuff. Planted some in a shady area before I knew it the things were coming up all over the place. I dug up the plants, removing as many roots as I could. Then I threw it in a wooded area on the side of our house. Now it's taken over that area too. It grew back in the area I dug up. Had to resort to Round Up to get rid of it.

I don't even want to discuss the bamboo that a neighbor planted on our property line. It's a good thing he moved.

I planted the archangel at my mother's house, in beds where nothing would grow. Her soil is so bad, it stays where put.

Then I tried it at my house, in beds where things were difficult to grow, like under a Norway maple. I think I will regret it.

The previous owners planted 7 Norway maples. They are a curse and a blight on my garden - the shade, the hard droughty soil, the seedlings. One has a major fungal attack now as many NMs on the street do, and I will have to spend big bucks to have it taken down.

Aegopodium , artemessia (inherited-didnt plant myself), mints, rudbeckia, sweet woodruff, vinca minor, cardinal vine, creeping jenny, ajuga, the sycamore in my neighbor's yard & the silver maple in the school yard across the street, rose of Sharon, and zoysia grass (inherited too).
I think that covers most of my spreading banes, but Im sure I'll think of more!
Does any one else cringe when you see these for sale in catalogues or at nurseries?

I have decided this year that i hate morning glories. I used to love them, but they have taken over..Every year i say thats it no more..but i still let them climb the fences..now I am on a mission..every day I am out there pulling the damn little sprouts that are constantly popping up..climbing up my other plants, ones that werent a few cents for a packet of seeds. I'll be damned if they strangle my babies..lol

Honeysuckle! It's a full time job getting rid ... it chokes everything.
I've cursed Yarrow it's so invasive but I've just found this so maybe I should re-think it.

quote: "Yarrow has endless medicinal properties. When made into a tea, which is used from the entire plant, it has a powerful effect on the immune system. It is also used to reduce fevers, as a blood purifier, as a method to combat depression and kidney disorders to name a few.

Yarrow has also been used as a cool wash for chapped hands and when applied to the face, it can rid the pores of excess oil. To make the wash, you need to brew the yarrow in a tea and leave it to cool.

While Yarrow helps other plants resist adverse conditions, it is a wonder compost activator."quote

Foxychris, when I was a kid, my father would make a paste from yarrow leaves, which he would then put on my poison ivy. I seem to recall that it worked really well.