Bud, don't panic...the seed pods haven't opened yet!!

It does sound like you have GM. The plant doesn't always have a strong garlic or onion smell when crushed. Around here (Maryland) GM is the only plant with white flowers in May. The seed head on the plant doesn't open for several weeks AFTER the flowers have disappeared. The best thing you can do is to carefully dispose of the seed heads. Maybe you could place them it in a small plastic bag and put them in the trash. The plant itself is harmless...DEAD! You can yank them and compose them. Just make sure you get those seedheads.

It's difficult to say whether you inadvertantly put seed heads in your compost pile. Most of the seedheads are at the top of the plant. If you have any doubt you could just make sure the pile heats up enough to cook them.

I can't imagine why anyone would purposely sell you GM plants unless they didn't know.. It's possible as I've known people who have dug them from the roadside and brought them home to plant in their garden. Hey, they're pretty to some people but those folks aren't aware of what they're unleashing. You should make the person who sold you the plants aware of what they're doing. (if you figure it out) Heck, it may even be against the law in Wisconsin.

The woods around my house is infested with GM. I've watched as it's moved up the road by my house. 2 years ago for the 1st time I found a few plants in my yard. Several were underneath a large holly tree and easy to overlook. I'm now diligent about policing my yard and the roadside nearby. I did Round-up some of the plants along the road because they were so thick but I yank all the ones in my yard.

Good luck and stay at it!

Here is a link that might be useful: Garlic mustard

Bud...don't spray Round-Up on bare stems. It's only affective when sprayed on dry foliage. Please read the directions carefully before using RU and mix it as the label recommends. More is NOT better.

Hosta's? You mentioned they might have "the virus." I wasn't aware of a virus of hosta's but I just googled and apparently there is a problem with a hosta virus in some areas, including Wisconsin. See the link.

There's a hosta forum here at GW so maybe you could consult with one of the pro's over there on that.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Scary stuff

Garlic mustard is a bad plant. I worked for years to chase it off my five acres of poison ivy back when I had those five acres. If I were you. I'd pull the plants, bag them in black plastic, sit the bag on the driveway to bake for a few days, then throw the bag into the trash. GM pulls up pretty easily.

As for your compost, surely it is a misdemeanor in your jurisdiction to waste compost! Just pull the seedlings when they appear. I get some in my garden every year and just have to stay on patrol.

I was also unaware of a hosta virus and will have to look that up.

Thanks guys. I was panicking. I am relieved that I found out about this GM before the seed pods expoded. I am so MAD at whoever sold me these things. Maybe the guy will have a stand again this year and I can discuss this with him.

What I did is cut the GM plant off with snippers and leave about 4" of stem and then sparayed the cut tips with Round-Up. I know that one should spray the leaves but I was afraid the seeds would ripen while I was waiting for the Round-Up to travel to the roots. This method worked for some Ivy that was growing all over the house when I bought it. I did do some reading before posting but wanted to gain some insight into anyone's 'real life' experience with eradicating GM. Most of the info I read was from .edu sites giving advice like on burning whole fields of the stuff or geredener's blogs whining how they can't get rid of GM ever.

I set the GW stems with the pods on the hot sidewalk for a half a day but they didn't wilt or anything. I then sprayed them with R-U and bagged them in plastic and put them in my regular garbage instead of the 'yard waste' bin that the city picks up, because they dump that in a place were it composts and residents go there and shovel what they need out of there. I don't want to see any one get any of those seeds that I read can be dormant for 5-6 years and then sprout.

I was being paranoid about the hostas I bought from the same place. As you can see from my profile I am somewhat of a 'hostaholic' although I believe in the 10' rule. The hosta forum and the cottage garden forum are my 'home base' here.

The HVX virus has run panic thoughout the hosta community. I know what to look for, and usually isolate any new hosta, even those bought from "reputable" sources as it has been pointed out in the hosta forum, that even Monrovia has been sending out infected hostas. Even so, one could slip through and wipe out everything. But with these I bought from this place I put them in place right away. So far they look healthy and I think they are fine. I was thinking if this guy sold garlic mustard ignorantly, that he may have not been aware of the HVX virus and sold infected hostas.

I did spray Round-Up on everything else I bought when I bought these GM. I don't trust any of those plants now. I wasn't happy with the way they looked anyway. They looked cute and bushy when I bought them in their pots, but this year they ended up being VINES snaking through my garden. I was thinking about moving them to a better spot for vines but I am not taking any chances with after this GM debacle.I don't know what they are but they are GONE. Gone. Gone.

On a side note, two other experiences I had as a newbie gardener back when I first bought my house; I bought some seeds and planted them in front of a trellis, they were *bindweed*. They never went up the trellis but tangled themselves up in all my rose bushes (Ouch! Getting it out.). Thank god they didn't get into my lawn. And I bought a can of "wildflower" mix (Yeah, I know. I know.....) that had *yarrow* in it. That yarrow sent out runners and I had it all over my lawn. It took YEARS to get it under control.

Thanks again for the quick response. I feel so stupid for even buying garlic mustard in the first place. I am sure somehwere, someone is reading my post and snickering at my naivety.

Course you can also eat garlic mustard. You can line a pot with the leaves before cooking fish for example. You can also add it, chopped fine, to lots of dishes where you want a garlic taste. :)

You wrote: "bought some seeds and planted them in front of a trellis, they were *bindweed*.

Most likely they were the domestic sort of morningglory and NOT the nasty morningglory called bindweed.

As for the yarrow in wildflower mix ... well, it's a "wildflfower" which, in some regions can become weedy.

Frankly, it's seldom a good idea to plant a wildflower mix. Instead, plant only those specific seeds/plants you want. It one of those life lesson things -- you know; live and learn.

No, jean001, it WAS **bindweed**. I plant different morning glory every year. (Heavenly Blue is my fav.) I learned about bindweed after planting it. I did some research. They actually sell seeds in the stores for all sorts of things that the average city gardener would probably not want growing.

+++++++

The other things I bought from this "plant guy" with his stand at the market turns out to be digitalis lutea, Straw Foxglove. It looked like a weed and then when it flowered I was able to ID it. It got the Round-Up treatment.

Besides the unknown vines that I could not ID I also got some things that look like poppy plants but much more sturdy and prickly. I waited for them to bloom, (which was this week), and all it got was some green balls at the top of the plant - no colorful flower. Round-Up on them all.

Then there is the thing that looks sort of like cranesbill but got HUGE. Ant then HUGER. When I checked it closer it I saw it was a lot of little plants spreading out over a 4ft. area. Then I noticed it popping up in areas a few feet away. And growing in the sidewalk cracks. There are little purple flowers hidden under the leaves that are hard to see. I don't think it is violets. I don't know. I couldn't find it when trying to ID. Round-Up. And rototill. They are springing back already all over. Arrrgh.

I'm sticking with well known nursuries from now on.

Heavenly blue is also my favorite MG. In fact, it's the ONLY MG I grow these days. Three years ago I decided to try something different and bought seeds of Grandpa Ott's. I planted a couple on a fence around my veg garden and one on a trellis beside my front porch. Big mistake!! All last summer and this summer I've spent so much time plucking seedlings. I even covered an area in newspaper and then mulched over it. They grew through the paper. Once the plants in my veg garden started shading them, I decided to let them grow thinking they wouldn't flower in shade. Wrong!! So I found myself plucking the purple flowers before they went to seed.

Again this summer I've been inundated in MG seedlings. I can sit in my spot and pull between 100-200 seedlings every few days from under my trellis. So from here on I'll only grow heavenly blue.

Btw, I have digitalis lutea and I really like it. It has never reseeded for me.

OK. It happened AGAIN! I have three garlic mustard plants coming up in my garden right now and I know they did not get there by errant seeds. They are a planted right where I would have placed a nice lower growing mounded plant. I even remember planting something last year in those exact spots.

These must be coming from a big box garden center, as I did not get any strange plants last year. Obviously the tags did not say "garlic mustard". Maybe the Latin name or is there another 'cute' name for garlic mustard?

They came up real fast and TALL this year, and I remember reading that GM is the ONLY thing that blooms white flowers in May. Same leaves. Same growth pattern.

Anyway, I got them dug up as soon as I saw the white 'cross' flowers on them. No seed pods formed yet.

Why would someone sell these things? I have seen things sold at big box garden centers that many consider weeds, like Lambs Ear and such, but not anything as dangerous as garlic mustard. I am going to keep my eye out at the garden centers when I am there and if I see GM being sold I am going to speak with them about it.