Moneywort is not that hard to pull all out, to have it gone, in my experience.

There is a weed that looks similar.

Can you post a picture?

Moni

I have golden moneywort that I WANT, but Bermuda keeps getting into it and no matter how carefully I try to remove the Bermuda, the moneywort comes right out. Its roots don't seem to be more than a centimeter or two long. I think Mom is probably right and you have something else.

I am attaching pictures, maybe it is something else? I tried several times to pull it before resorting to digging up the entire flower bed last year. Each time, after I pulled it out, it only took a couple of days for this plant to be back. When I pull it, the stem snaps and the root almost always stays in the ground sprouting many new heads. This battle is similar to what I was fighting in my backyard flowerbed with Bermuda, but with Bermuda I already know that there is no way I could win ...

Here it is from close. It just started to grow but last year it formed a thick continous layer on the ground.

One of the reasons I originally thought it must have been planted on purpose and not a weed is because I find it looks pretty with its round leaves. I just wish it was not spreading so invasively over my flowers. Maybe I need to change my plans and not have any low growing flowers but instead only shrubs in that flower bed?

Well, it sure looks like moneywort....

and I realize, I didn't read your original post right. You want it GONE!

I have never dug it up. I like the fact, my ground is covered. I also do know, it does root easy.

With other words, it is prolly like Bermuda grass, and if you have the tiniest bit left in there, it re grows. The roots are very fine, and it is prolly hard to get them all out too.

Sorry, I don't know, how I would get rid of it... other than pulling it up again and again.

Maybe you just need to pull it from around your pansies, so they have breathing room?

Here are a couple of pictures I took of my moneywort.

Dig up the pansies (and anything else you don't want to kill) and give them a vacation in another part of the garden for a few weeks.

Then try one of these methods:

1. Pour boiling water on the moneywort. Repeat as necessary (any time you see it trying to grow back). Make sure the boiling water doesn't reach anything you don't want to kill!

2. Lay down several sheets of newspaper over the moneywort. Make sure no moneywort is visible! Wet the newspaper so it flattens against the soil. Cover the newspaper with mulch or whatever (mulch looks tidy). This will keep the newspaper from blowing away and will prevent sunlight from reaching the moneywort.

I have no experience with moneywort, so I don't know how long you'd need to wait before the moneywort would be toast and you could remove the newspaper and mulch and re-plant your pansies. Take a peek every so often to see if any moneywort seems to be alive.

3. Buy a weed torch at a garden center, or use anything similar you might already own. Read up on their use.

I haven't done this myself, but for many purposes -- for example, weeds in a gravel driveway -- people seem to find it solves the problem. Of course, don't try this if you have anything flammable nearby: house, fence, deck, etc.

Methods 1 and 3 have an obvious hands-on aspect which can be extremely satisfying!

If the moneywort has gone to seed, methods 1 and 3 are probably more likely to succeed than method 2.

Depending what kind of bulbs you have, it might be preferable to move the bulbs -- or to leave them in place and use method 2 (leaving the bulb foliage uncovered). I can't advise you.

This post was edited by missingtheobvious on Sat, Mar 29, 14 at 21:01

Thanks for the suggestions!
Moni, the plant in your picture looks exactly like mine!
Missingtheobvious, the method you described in #2 is what I am planning to do in my backyard flowerbed where Bermudagrass is creeping in! I could not realistically do either in my front flowerbed without damaging all the annuals and perennials I already planted there, pansies, hyacints, hostas, lillies, cannas etc. which is why I wanted to limit or eliminate the wildly growing moneywort in the first place.
Moni, I think I will try to keep enough pulled where my flowers can breathe and see if I can make friends with the moneywort as flowerbed groundcover instead of mulch! Next time I get the urge to plant something tiny, I will chose another spot instead of this bed, thankfully I have not run out places to plant yet :-)

In one generation, moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia) has spread throughout my property and has popped up in the yards of anyone I have given plants to, even though I do my best at this point to bare root them before giving them to anyone. Worse yet, the plant has seriously impacted the ecology of a wild trout stream by my house. Whole mats of it have formed, excluding all native vegetation. This is not recognized yet for the threat it is. Take it VERY seriously. Every nursery I know of here sells it, and no nursery owner has been willing to come and look at my property when invited to face the reality that they are sending out hundreds of hanging baskets a year with this invader in it. I have seen it destroy fern beds, and a lawn mower effectively redistributes it. Creeping charlie (Glechoma hederacea) came to me the same way. Don't let the fact that it is a golden or variegated form fool you. Seeds return to their original state. I sound hard-core because I am. I spend every free moment trying to keep my property value and now weed the natural areas instead of my garden...how perverted is that? Neighbors have given me Japanese knot weed (Fallopia japonica), woolly mullein (Verbascum thaspus), and Purple Loosestrife (Lysimachia salicaria). Furthermore, a guy up the road has a lovely patch of giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzanium) that he refuses to let us cut down for him. This is an upcoming biological and ecological crisis because we introduce something and become quickly bored when we discover we can't easily remove it.

I agree with the roses. Nearly everywhere I go I see diseased roses. What varieties are more hardy to rosette virus?

There are no known resistant varieties. From my research, the microscopic mites can either crawl from plant to plant, or be blown in the wind. During drought the mites blow around easily, I guess because they just get airborne easier then. So, having so many roses planted everywhere (and no rosarians caring for them/monitoring them), like the Knockout roses, we have produced an amazing reservoir of mites and virus.

It appears that the only way to get rid of the virus reservoir in our area is to destroy the bushes, and plant something else (not roses). Commercial property owners are not responsive to these concerns, in my experience. I wish the towns could force diseased plants to be removed (even though I'm not a fan of government meddling in general).

We need to think seriously about how we garden, and how we introduce new plant material. Most of the major tree diseases that have degraded our forests to the point that they can no longer be called forests have come from us bringing in exotic plants and even wood for firewood infested with pests. For what? Because we chose a beautiful area to live in, then had to "improve" it with a bunch of other plants? I have begun to bare root all new plants (burning the soil they come with) before putting them in my garden. If they start to spread rapidly, I pull them out and or contain them by nicking off seed heads or putting them in pots. There is a lot we can do if we pay attention, but sadly, a lot of damage has already been done. I have been looking at older books of the natural "flora" of my area, and am developing a list of plants that should be here that I have never seen. Beautiful plants, like hepatica, erythronium, and a native corydalis as well as many others. It is an eye-opening issue when you look into it.

Oh yeah...I am working with concentrated round-up (against my will, but a one shot with a chemical vs a form of pollution that grows without limit is a no-brainer). It is not killing the moneywort. Not sure what my next move will be.