wendyb
I'm pulling up seedlings by the gazillion! LOL, I made the mistake of PLANTING it myself 2 years ago, last year had 4 plants, ugh. I read the seeds were edible, and they do taste like nuts so I let them seed and now they are everywhere. I think pulling and whacking them before they flower should do the trick, but some seeds may lie dormant and resprout for a while over the next year or two. I hope I'll be able to keep them down to a managable crowd!

Oh that is what they are called. For some reason I thought they were some kind of chenopodium...good thing I didn't eat any...lol They are beautiful but they do spread and take over. I keep them in one area, but I pull them out if they go over their line.

too bad you can't bring yourself to enjoy this native. it is a favorite of the ruby throated hummingbird and its sap is a salve for poison ivy outbreaks. i can think of "weeds" a lot more horrible.

Wendy,Elke,
The reason I won't ever try to totally eradicate it, is because of the use against poison ivy. I'm horribly allergic to PI and I've heard that jewelweed salve will stop it almost before it starts. Luckily I haven't had to use it since I planted it!

I had read that it often grows alongside PI. Mother nature's way of evening things off???

And its true because I used to have PI in that same patch. I had the PI eradicated about 10 years ago. That probably helped expose these seeds and let this thing take over.

I agree it's not a bad weed to have in the woods. But it doesn't know how to stay in its place. And supposedly it throws its seeds 20' so that gets it in places I don't want it.

I'm going to plant some desirable groundcovers near the boundary of woods and my stuff, which hopefully will keep seeds dormant.

I have jewel-weed and keep it under control with a weed-whacker. Pretty basic, huh?

You could use corn gluten meal in the area to control sprouting seeds, IF the seeds sprout more or less all at once. If it's one of those multi-generational annuals, you'd need to apply the CGM several times per season.

I'm going to try it on garlic mustard, along with mulch, since I have seeds blowing in from neighbors' yards. I know garlic mustard is different - not a native, for one thing, and biennial for another, but if this works I'll be *really* happy. I've been deadheading and pulling, but the seedlings keep coming, hopefully the CGM will break the cycle.

Some of you are confusing the native (orange) jewel weed with the invasive (purple/pink) The native is fine, the purple should be pulled whenever found as it crowds out wildflowers, monarach habitat milkweed, etc.

This addition to the discussion comes 14 yrs after the previous entries. This site is so broken.

LOL! 14/14! What a great follow-up! I can't get this plant to grow, not 1 plant, and here's this discussion about way too much of it.