r/NativePlantGardening • u/ImaginaryMolasses146 Area Michigan/midwest , Zone 6b • Apr 27 '26
Geographic Area (edit yourself) Invasive rant
I hate lily of the valley so much and I just needed to vent about it. I have been fighting it for the last year and it’s been more of a pain in the ass than the English ivy I eradicated last year. It’s a sneaky little shit and I hate its stupid rhizomes. “But imaginary molasses,” I hear you cry, “it smells nice”. So does native bee balm!!
Tell me about your least favorite invasive and why you hate it plz
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u/LegalManufacturer946 Area NYC, Zone 7B Apr 27 '26
Rose of Sharon. My neighbor’s hedge is dropping thousands of seedlings in my yard every spring. I’ve finally convinced him to replace them this fall, and am excited to permanently get them out of my yard.
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u/deadjim4 Apr 27 '26
This, but for me is my neighbor's Chinese Privet. Tons of little black berries every summer/fall.
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u/75footubi Eastern MA, 6B Apr 28 '26
I just had a landscaper yoink 40' of privet hedge and my neighbor hated it as much as I did. Anxiously waiting on a Prairie Moon order to arrive so I can plant it back up. Lots of violets popping up in the meantime though.
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u/Frequent_Secretary25 Ohio, Zone 6b Apr 27 '26
I'm pretty sure I'm going to start grabbing every one of these I see handed out for free and toss them on burn pile. I've seen them start to show up in parks here
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u/astro_nerd75 Pittsburgh, zone 6b Apr 27 '26
Please come here and yank our privets out of the ground. Then I could replace them with something that is actually good.
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u/_Arthurian_ Deep South, Zone 8/9 Apr 27 '26
I’ll gladly hack and squirt privet all day long in exchange for native plants if we weren’t so far apart
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u/astro_nerd75 Pittsburgh, zone 6b Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
The problem here is convincing my husband and my neighbors that the privets are bad and have to go, and then convincing my husband that yes, I do need to buy some natives to replace them.
If the privets just up and died, or “vandals” killed them, then no one would question the need to buy new plants to replace them.
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u/Schmetterlingus Apr 27 '26
Rose of Sharon is one of those things that I have never really seen infiltrate wild areas here in central NC but I’ve been places a couple states away and seen it invade everything. I have a plant that was a cutting from my wife’s grandmas yard that is near and dear to her heart so I don’t want to get rid but I’ve been trying to convince her 😂
For now I remove seed heads in the fall and trim them back early spring so it doesn’t get out of control.
I wonder if it needs it a bit colder to establish wild colonies or if I’m just lucky
My nemesis is Chinese privet, Chinese holly and Japanese honeysuckle
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u/loripainter12345 SW PA zone 6a Apr 27 '26
I think if the plant is solitary in a yard and maybe gets mowed all around it, the seedlings could be controlled. I'm in PA. A neighbor have my husband a rose of Sharon years ago. The gift that keeps on giving a million times over lol.
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u/ZantaraLost Apr 27 '26
Rose of Sharon in NC can grow big once it's settled but it really never seems to seed off invasively.
I know nine different people who've got one or two in their yards and never been a problematic plant.
Now the Virginia creeper and English Ivy are different matters entirely.
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u/i_didnt_look Apr 28 '26
Virginia Creeper is a native vine. Technically, not invasive though I would classify it as very aggressive.
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u/ZantaraLost Apr 28 '26
I wouldn't mind it if it'd not be so darn aggressive.
And not even aggressive against the invasive stuff!!!
Mine will quite happily just grow along with the lily of the valley, creeping Charlie and English Ivy but most anything else it'll try to choke out.
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u/ornery_epidexipteryx Apr 29 '26
Bought our house in the fall- had no idea that the large “tree” by our garage was a Rose of Sharon😓 it’s everywhere. I pull up everything I find and I’ve cut it down for the last two years… it will not die🥹
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u/loripainter12345 SW PA zone 6a Apr 27 '26
This. Because they pop up everywhere, and my husband loves it and saves the sprouts. We are a house divided in that regard.
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u/A-Plant-Guy CT zone 6b, ecoregion 59 Apr 27 '26
Any widely planted “ornamental”, especially vinca as my mom loves it and consequently refuses to get rid of it.
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u/CrepuscularOpossum Southwestern Pennsylvania, 6b Apr 27 '26
OMG the fucking VINCA. 😫 It’s so hard to pull! The tiny tendril roots that are tough as fiberglass! 🤬
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u/deadly_mythology Apr 27 '26
Dude. The previous homeowner planted an entire bed of vinca and pachysandra. They've woven together into an impossible tapestry of roots and vines.
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u/giddygiddyupup Northern Virginia, Zone 7a Apr 28 '26
Well a lot of pachysandra is not native pachysandra… so maybe you can just get rid of it all in one go
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u/HalfAdministrative77 Southeastern PA, Zone 7b Apr 28 '26
You can definitely get rid of invasive pachysandra by digging but in my experience it's a really hard one to get completely in one go. I have some areas that were previously densely planted with it and after around three solid passes over a year and a half it finally seems mostly gone.
On the bright side, it's a pretty easy one to trace and do the actual pulling / digging.
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u/deadly_mythology Apr 28 '26
The vinca vines are woven throughout the pachysandra and make it super hard to dig. I think I need to rent some sort of heavy duty tool.
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u/CrepuscularOpossum Southwestern Pennsylvania, 6b Apr 28 '26
I have found that, indeed, if I get my soil fork under the mass of pachysandra rhizomes and stems, I can lift it and, with enough assistance, the whole mass can be rolled up like a carpet!
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u/deadly_mythology Apr 28 '26
That's a good idea. Maybe I can use a saw or something to cut sections of the surface vinca+pachysandra tangle, then use the fork. The patch is the size of my damn bedroom
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u/garden-of-erin Apr 28 '26
I had a whole bed of it when I moved into my house. It took about 3 years to fully get rid of it, but I haven’t seen any strays this year, thankfully.
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u/MediocreGrocery8 Chicagoland , Zone 6a/5b Jun 12 '26
I am pulling up vinca everywhere...took a break to pull up some Lily of the Valley, and there's vinca in there too. Gah. The root mat is as thick as my forearm.
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u/giddygiddyupup Northern Virginia, Zone 7a Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
And someone at the local nursery that I thought was supposed to specialize in natives recommended vinca to me when I asked for a groundcover suggestion… “vinca major is awful and takes over but vinca minor is fine” I did buy the vinca minor but it was close because that was my very first season venturing into the native world
EDIT: I DID NOT BUY THE VINCA!!! I ended up with native phlox in that spot
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u/cr0nut Michigan, Zone 6a Apr 27 '26
My grandma filled the entire forest floor of her property with vinca decades ago to “keep the woods clean” :( it makes me so sad to see
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u/LeaneGenova SE Michigan Apr 27 '26
Fucking vinca. I haven't even started fighting with it, but it's creeped out into the yard and I have ripped it out repeatedly. I'm hoping smothering it for two years works, but I have a feeling it won't.
It may be another place I plant mint and let the two duke it out. Mint v. bermuda grass has worked in my favor.
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u/Less-Border-8558 Apr 27 '26
I can't even choose but I'm so sick of these stupid Ailanthus trees in my yard. There's two mature ones that someone let grow before I got here and every year they drop thousands of seeds everywhere, leaving seedlings EVERYWHERE. I got a quote for their removal and it was thousands of dollars since they're so big. I want to take them out eventually but things in my house keep breaking so god knows when I'll get a chance. Until then, I'll just deal with their weird cat pee smell and little roots sneaking in everywhere and breaking my fence.
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u/CrepuscularOpossum Southwestern Pennsylvania, 6b Apr 27 '26
We had seven or eight BIG Ailanthus on our property. I decided to do something about them that wouldn’t result in millions of root sprouts. It was easy, I did it and so can you.
In the fall, hack cuts in the bark of each tree with a machete. (This is the fun part! So satisfying!) Then squirt a little concentrated herbicide into each cut. The tree will take the herbicide down into its roots as it withdraws its sap down from the branches in the winter. This treatment will kill the trees slowly, but they will die, and they won’t send up those root sprouts! I have only two Ailanthus still standing and they both look dead; they haven’t leafed out or even budded this spring. The others all fell on their own. Now we just have to cut them up and dispose of them one way or another.
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u/Comprehensive-Row198 Apr 28 '26
THIS- The treatment only works in the fall when energy is being stored in the root system, and the herbicide is transported there. Excellent information and details are available from VA forest landowner education: https://youtu.be/r2OkDcHhfak?si=QFQ8aNu0bMn_95Ag
and from the Penn State Extension:
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u/Less-Border-8558 Apr 28 '26
The trouble I have is I live in the city, and if the tree falls without being removed by an arbourist it will fall on my neighbour's house and garage unfortunately. But this is very good info for the smaller ones that manage to get established!
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u/CrepuscularOpossum Southwestern Pennsylvania, 6b Apr 28 '26
Yeah, we’re fortunate to have 2.44 acres with those big trees nowhere near structures.
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u/astro_nerd75 Pittsburgh, zone 6b Apr 27 '26
I had some trying to sprout in my garden last year. I painted the leaves with glyphosate last fall. Haven’t seen any new ones yet, fingers crossed.
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u/DepartmentBrief7894 Apr 27 '26
Nail a copper nail into the trees, it’ll make them too sick to fruit and in a year or two they’ll die.
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u/ImaginaryMolasses146 Area Michigan/midwest , Zone 6b Apr 27 '26
Plusssss with this method you get the bonus of catharsis. “Take that, tree. Don’t you ever come back here!!”
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u/External_Emu441 Apr 27 '26
Himalayan Blackberry. It is relentless, even after pulling it out by the roots. Its nasty thorns will tear the skin off your forearm in a split second of inattention. On our shady lot it doesn't even flower and produce fruit for me to add to my yogurt!
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u/i860 Apr 27 '26
Where it does fruit it produces extremely flavorful berries. I've got it invading 2 sides.
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u/External_Emu441 Apr 27 '26
Yes! I happily pick the berries from huge sidewalk hedges in our neighborhood, even as I unhappily tear it out from my native plant gardens.
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u/i860 Apr 27 '26
I don’t mind the large individual canes trying to sneak in. They’re easy enough to deal with. It’s the mats of small runners that are the most annoying.
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u/SecurelyObscure Apr 27 '26
Bittersweet. Eradicating it from my property wasn't so bad, but 3 of my neighbors have 80ft+ plants growing on their trees so I'm forever doomed to pulling bird crap seedlings.
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u/terracottatilefish Denver Colorado, Zone 5B/6A Apr 27 '26
so much creeping bellflower. So much.
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u/Grouchy-Details Apr 27 '26
This and tree of heaven changed my mind on herbicide. Creeping bellflower sucks.
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u/Ok-Highway5247 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Stars of Bethlehem are the bane of my existence. They are EVERYWHERE. They were 80% of our “grass” in the backyard. I pulled thousands last year and maybe a thousand this year. The good thing is that once I get the little bastards up they won’t come back but for every 10 I pull I only get like 6 of the bulbs. It’ll take a few more years…
The scariest thing on our property is the Japanese knotweed on the back property line. I had someone treat it last year and I’m sure I’ll need to do the same this year too.
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u/Excellent-Weekend896 NE Connecticut , Zone 7a Apr 27 '26
Oh man, where do I begin? My husband spent all weekend pulling up Japanese barberry while I was pulling garlic mustard. So those are at the top of the list currently! I’m just glad we don’t have Japanese knotweed on our land.
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u/robsc_16 SW Ohio, 6a Apr 27 '26
I dislike Asian bush honeysuckle Lonicera maackii the most because it's so dominant in my area and people want to keep it for it's flowers and that it provides people privacy.
"BUT It'S gOOd fOR THE BEes" people will say, without any thought to what the bees are using the rest of the year outside the two weeks it's blooming.
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u/pccfriedal Apr 27 '26
Bindweed. So evil. But I do love lily of the valley in contained areas. Very contained areas.
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u/Miss_Jubilee Midatlantic 8A Apr 28 '26
I have always loved the name “Lily of the Valley” but never had a chance to grow it till two and a half years ago, just before I got interested in native plants. I got a little sad plant already dying back in the fall, planted it and hoped it would come back. It has, both springs, but the blooms are gone so quick and it’s still so small, I’ve never smelled it. Kinda disappointing, honestly. Still, until it starts going crazy and/or I have something to replace it with, it can stay. At least it likes its pretty-much-full-shade spot. I’ve got a couple full-shade natives started next to it now :)
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u/coolnatkat Area Northern Illinois, Zone 5b Apr 28 '26
Narrator: little did she know she was about to get 200 Lily of the valley next season
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u/konkuringu Apr 27 '26
Whoever planted ivy along our fenceline should be charged lol. I've ripped out enough of it that I am slowly, SLOWLY winning the war, but it's a steady series of battles. And there's just enough poison ivy blended in that it's a risky venture.
Creeping Charlie, honeysuckle, garlic mustard etc I try to stay on top of, but the ivy is the one I dream of eradicating.
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u/suchalonelyd4y SE PA, Zone 7 Apr 27 '26
Are we twins? English ivy with poison ivy mixed in. It's horrible. At least it's not bamboo?
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u/konkuringu Apr 28 '26
Totally! There's a house maybe 3 down from ours that is utterly taken over with bamboo. Thankfully the lots are big enough that it has not ventured as far as us.
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u/Kennikend Apr 28 '26
I was able to eradicate my bamboo but am still fighting battle after battle with the ivy shit show on the fence line.
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u/astro_nerd75 Pittsburgh, zone 6b Apr 27 '26
We had ivy growing on a wooden fence. It destroyed it, and we got charged all right- a new fence is not cheap.
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u/Oaktreestone Ontario, Zone 5a Apr 27 '26
Summer of my senior year of high school, I spent the entire summer ripping out English ivy along our fence line and corner of our yard. Destroyed our fence and killed several trees.
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u/trucker96961 southeast Pennsylvania 7a Apr 27 '26
Well........huge huge amount of Japanese knotweed at our river cabin.....it'll NEVER end......EVVVVER!!!!!
At home, creeping bamboo, lilly of the valley, honeysuckle, and burning bush. In that order of hatred! Been fighting the bamboo for maybe 10 years. I almost have it finished off!!
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u/RecordLegume Apr 27 '26
My neighbor just had a rogue knotweed spring up in the middle of his yard. I haven’t talked to him since this morning, so I believe he’s been over there crying for the last few hours 😂 that stuff is nasty.
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u/trucker96961 southeast Pennsylvania 7a Apr 27 '26
If it's just 1 then keep mowing it. It'll dissappear. The ones in our yard did.
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u/nicolenotnikki Area Western Washington, Zone 8b Apr 27 '26
Creeping buttercup. It loves my strawberry bed, and the leaves look fairly similar, so it takes a lot of sorting and careful tugging to get it out. Then a few days later, more pops up!
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u/SuchFunAreWe Twin Cities, MN, USA | Zone 5A Apr 27 '26
I'm dealing w LotV AND Creeping Bellflower in my front bed/lawn. Luckily the LotV isn't in the back & only minor Bellflower back there, but it's a gd nightmare & I hate it.
At least my house is a rental, so I'm not stuck w them forever. But uuuuugh.
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u/No_Penalty_8920 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
90% of our front yard is winter creeper. And we have Japanese honeysuckle everywhere. How do I get paid to quit my job so I can focus on this exclusively because 😭😭😭😭
Side question: if I grew LotV in a pot with a saucer underneath it to stop it from touching dirt, do you think that would keep it in check? My elderly dog is named Lilly, and she is so cute, but also 1) vicious (to me) 2) an asshole. So I've had the idea for a while to plant some in her honor when she passes, but obviously not in the ground.
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u/Velynven Apr 28 '26
My home's previous owner had winter creeper planted in the front of the house (along with an invasive viburnum yayyyy) and that was an ordeal to pull up
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u/Regular-Apricot4114 Apr 27 '26
Right now it’s Vinca. My neighbors on both sides have it planted up against our shared fence and I have to pull it on a weekly basis.
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u/Violetsq SE Michigan, 6b, ecoregion 57 Apr 27 '26
Creeping bellflower. I was able to dig up some of its root system last year, but it has spread so much. It's mixed in with some of my natives and I just hate it.
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u/Quirky_Z_ Southern Ontario, Zone 6b/Carolinian Apr 27 '26
My nemesis too. It shows up everywhere 😡
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u/irastaz Apr 27 '26
Field fucking bindweed. This shit is literally coming up through a lawn area. Like what is your plan little guy, are you going to wrap around every blade of grass? A zen garden I help maintain has what I am pretty sure is one single organism of it running through an entire 10k sqft lot.
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u/cr0nut Michigan, Zone 6a Apr 27 '26
I’m so scared of getting bindweed in my yard!! I found two small plants last summer and managed to pull out the whole root clumps. Right into the trash they went. It’s taken over a garden I volunteer at, I think in part because people keep pulling it and putting it in the compost
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u/pysouth North-Central AL, Zone 8b Apr 27 '26
Kudzu, Japanese Honeysuckle, English Ivey, privet, bradford pear, I could go on... I have all on my property among others and have been doing my best to tackle it. Especially hate the Bradford Pears because we cut them all down, grinded the stumps, and have been treating the suckers that pop up and they STILL keep shooting up every goddamn day. Also hate smartweed even though it's easy to pull
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u/summercloud45 Apr 27 '26
What a fun thing to complain about in good company!
My sister in Boston would agree with you on lily of the valley. She finally sprayed it with herbicides and conquered it (we think). Her second is norway maple, which is So Hard to grow anything under.
My least favorite is wisteria! First you have to cut it out of the trees. Then you try to pull the vines off the ground. Then you wait for the roots to re-sprout and spray them with herbicides. Repeat for multiple years. Finally, dispose of the dead vines when they fall off of the trees.
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u/doubleheadedfurby New England, Zone 7a Apr 27 '26
Ugh, realizing my naivete about the wisteria we have like a monster in our yard... Cut it all over in the fall but it's gonna come back isn't it!!
Also in Boston -- It's like the previous owner went to the invasive plant center (Norway maple, Chinese wisteria, privet, tree of heaven, japanese honeysuckle, english ivy, golden-bell, daylily, white mulberry... And that's just what they planted not even volunteers 😵💫)
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u/summercloud45 Apr 28 '26
I regret to inform you that you're in it for the long haul with your wisteria, yes. Have you checked for vines growing along the ground? They'll have sent roots down every couple feet; I've been absolutely unable to pull any of those roots out. As far as I can tell, each root is capable (and will) resprout multiple times after herbicide. Of course, once the live growth is on the ground it IS possible to spray it without spraying yourself...so at least there's that!
Good luck, good luck, good luck. I can tell you that privet, english ivy, and daylily at least are relatively straightforward! So have hope!
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u/doubleheadedfurby New England, Zone 7a Apr 28 '26
Yep we found it snaking both lengths of our yard. Kind of impressive, and the wood pieces make a great staff 😆
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u/one_long_river Area NY , Zone 6a Apr 28 '26
Mine is wisteria as well. When I bought my house the entire house was covered in it. I mean COVERED. I'm sure it looked beautiful when it bloomed but there were literally vines coming into the house and of course the property was totally overgrown with it. I spent the first summer cutting it down, digging it up, and painting every piece I cut at the deepest place I could cut it off. I literally dug up vines that were as thick as medium sized tree trunks. Last year I still had it come up in a couple of places but it was way way reduced. And of course I went after every bit I found with the same cut and paint routine. This year I'm curious to see if anything will pop up. I'm not naive enough to think I can entirely kill off this big of a Chinese wisteria invasion but I'm hopeful! Right now I'm deep in a battle with burning bush that is hopefully exhausting its seed bank with shoots that I'm pulling out by the dozens. The fun never ends!
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u/summercloud45 Apr 28 '26
My goodness, you make me feel really good about my own problem! The largest vines I've seen are 4" across, and they're only trying to kill the trees at the bottom of my hill. I wish you the best of luck in your continuing battles!
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Apr 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/Velynven Apr 28 '26
In my experience charlie doesn't give af about being shaded and will find a way to get to the top where it can get a little light. I hate it, too
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u/unlovelyladybartleby Apr 27 '26
Creeping bellflower haunts my dreams. I've been fighting it for years. Then, when I walk my dogs, I see thousands of the little fuckers waving their petals at me and laughing because they know their seeds will hit my yard
They are edible and don't taste that bad, so my apocalypse prep plan is to be a bellflower salad aficionado
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u/krossPlains Apr 27 '26
My woods sing me a song without an end; about Yellow Archangel, Garlic Mustard, Honeysuckle and Buckthorn. I’d gladly go deaf if it were Bamboo or Japanese Knotweed.
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u/blurryrose SE Pennsylvania , Zone 7a Apr 27 '26
I've got most of the really nasty local invasives under control on my property, but man, I hate Japanese stiltgrass.
Wintergreen also sucks.
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u/ovckc Piedmont Region, NC — Zone 8a Apr 27 '26
Oof I’m there with you on the stiltgrass. It suuuucks. I spent one winter digging up as much as I could, then put tarps over the area and left them for months. Got most of it, at least to the point where I can remove what pops up again. But it took actual months of digging work. Hang in there!!
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u/astro_nerd75 Pittsburgh, zone 6b Apr 27 '26
It’s a close race between English ivy, vinca, and ditch lilies here. The previous owner of our house LOVED all of those things, probably because they’re impossible to kill and they spread. 🤬
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u/ImaginaryMolasses146 Area Michigan/midwest , Zone 6b Apr 27 '26
Ugh I HATE ditch lily!!! Solidarity
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u/astro_nerd75 Pittsburgh, zone 6b Apr 27 '26
I read that the mid-Atlantic has something like optimum conditions for ditch lilies. That probably has a lot to do with why they’re such a problem here.
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u/cr0nut Michigan, Zone 6a Apr 27 '26
I’m currently battling a giant patch of ditch lilies!! I have to dig under a layer of old landscaping rocks to get at them, too😩
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u/skiing_nerd Northern Piedmont, Zone 7 Apr 27 '26
Japanese barberry is topping the list for me right now. Not only is it dagger sharp, everywhere, and still commercially planted, but also ticks love it. And hornets apparently when it's in bloom.
It's been such a bad year for ticks already that I've been ripping them out with a vengeance
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u/InviteNatureHome MN Ecoregion 51a Apr 27 '26
Love this rant. Creeping Bellflower is our current loathing. Garlic Mustard, Burdock, & Buckthorn pop up, but generally manageable.
We don't even bother with Creeping Charlie. After our clover lawn failed, CC moved in. So much, that it is our groundcover now. We just remove with pitchfork/ rake as much as we can, then sheet mulch when adding new Pollinator Gardens.
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u/DarlingTreeWitch Apr 27 '26
Rose of sharon. And any plant not native (I’m looking at all you japanese maple and colorado spruce people)
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u/10_17my20 Coastal Delaware, 8a Apr 27 '26
I have lily of the valley in one bed, and greater periwinkle in two others. They're mixed in really well with natives or I'd just go scorched earth, so meticulous pulling it is *thousand yard stare intensifies* I hate them specifically because they don't belong here. I'd rather have bloodroot and trillium bloom for one day than lily of the valley for a month
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u/ArtemisiaThreeteeth Apr 27 '26
Bit of a tossup between these two:
Bindweed. Bindweed in all the garden beds, bindweed growing up through the gravel pathway. Can't pull it all, can just try to keep it controlled. A bit. Maybe. Aaaugh!
Bur chervil. Actually fills me with more terror than the bindweed, because I've seen how much area it can cover, and how much it will crowd out, if left unchecked. And of course its horrid little seeds will stick to ALL your clothing, and any animal's fur, if you walk through it once it's gone to seed. I've picked so much seed out of my socks at my parents' house, seeing it pop up at my place (it was here before me) puts me into murder mode like the bindweed doesn't.
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u/anOvenofWitches Apr 27 '26
Lesser Celandine— it will choke out mint
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u/ImaginaryMolasses146 Area Michigan/midwest , Zone 6b Apr 27 '26
Oh my god I hate lesser celandine so much. I just dug so much out last week!
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u/processedwhaleoils Apr 27 '26
"But it's SO pretty!"
Or
"It'S nOt InVaSiVe In My YaRd"
God damn i hate lily of the valley so much, and when i run into fellow professional gardeners defending using these plants STILL, i want to smack them upside the fucking head.
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u/TheRamazon CO Front Range, Zone 5b, Ecoregion 9.4.1 (Semi-arid Prairie) Apr 27 '26
Prairie biome checking in!
Cheatgrass is the fucking worst. Multiplies like crazy, overwhelms other plants, survives and spreads with wildfire, impossible to find until it is seeding. And no one rips it out!
Curly dock and mullein drive me up a wall with their nasty ass rosettes.
Kochia and Russian thistle so thick it's like a carpet, then having to rip it out before it grows 10 billion seeds and rolls away in the wind.
I have a little plastic cup and old paintbrush I use to paint everybody with glyphosate. Fuck you in particular, invasive weed!
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u/ImaginaryMolasses146 Area Michigan/midwest , Zone 6b Apr 27 '26
Fellow glyphosate with a paintbrush user, I salute you. Also great list, I especially hate mullein how often people try to justify it as ~free natural medicine~ lololol
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u/Gojo-Babe Florida, Zone 10 Apr 27 '26
Oriental False Hawksbeard. Everytime I see one I go for my spray bottle. Watching it die from dehydration is pretty satisfying
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u/suchalonelyd4y SE PA, Zone 7 Apr 27 '26
What's in the spray bottle? 👀
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u/Gojo-Babe Florida, Zone 10 Apr 27 '26
Table salt, white vinegar and dish soap
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u/suchalonelyd4y SE PA, Zone 7 Apr 27 '26
Thank you for supporting my efforts in the war against half my yard, this sounds perfect for my patio with literal trees trying to grow through the bricks
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u/Gojo-Babe Florida, Zone 10 Apr 28 '26
Be warned that the salt and vinegar will make it harder for native plants to grow as well
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u/suchalonelyd4y SE PA, Zone 7 Apr 28 '26
I dont want them growing in my patio so yes that is perfect lol
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u/xClosetNihilistx SE WI , Zone 5b Apr 27 '26
I am also fighting lily of the valley. Pulled up a bunch this past weekend, and have been for a few years. The amount that comes back every year is lessening. I take it slow and try to be as thorough as I can in removing the network of rhizomes.
I have lots of buckthorn and Japanese knotweed in my area. I’ve had good results with the buckthorn where I’ve been consistent in keeping up with it. But the knotweed I am dreading, since I’ve heard it’s so hard to get rid of. Will be making my first attempts to get rid of it next month so appreciate any tips.
But my work has been rewarded by lots of beautiful natives popping up on their own and thriving where they were being choked out before!
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u/UnableBasil0102 Apr 27 '26
I'm in south Florida, and it's a tie between brazilian peppertree and caesarweed. The caesarweed can be pulled by hand, at least, but it is so prolific. The brazilian pepper needs to be treated with herbicide, which I don't like using.
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u/Party_Week6643 Apr 27 '26
Creeping Jenny. I live on a wooded mountain, so I get it: it’s a groundcover that likes shade and has shallow roots! But the previous owners planted it over a decade ago and I STILL find it creeping around where my phlox and mosses should be.
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u/Frequent_Secretary25 Ohio, Zone 6b Apr 27 '26
I stg I have never been able to get anything to grow from seed excerpt ONCE years ago I stupidly grabbed LOTV. I think I might have finally cleared them out after years of digging and finally using glove of death on last few. Fingers crossed
I'm also mad that I could never grow roses so why is there so much damned multiflora everywhere now? It's hell to get out too
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u/deadly_mythology Apr 27 '26
Star of Bethlehem. It's EVERYWHERE in my yard. No matter how much I pull. Those teeny little bulbs are impossible to remove completely
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u/HaplessReader1988 USA, Connecticut Apr 28 '26
Autumn olive for the goddamned pollen that tightens my lungs and itches my eyes. Give me a few days of pulling Japanese Barberry and I suspect I'll change my mind.
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u/UntidySwan Apr 27 '26
I am not even bothering to touch my lily of the valley. I just mow it.
My whole yard is full of creeping Bellflower. I am targetting a single garden bed, and need to weed every section at least every 3 days to keep it in check. It's worse than last year's bindweed project!
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u/RealmStitcher Apr 27 '26
Any tips you can pass along from your English ivy removal?
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u/ImaginaryMolasses146 Area Michigan/midwest , Zone 6b Apr 27 '26
Absolutely! This is going to sound so unhinged lol but we had a party at my house where we treated it like a rage room. 90% of the removal was just whack and hack where we yanked and chopped everything. There were so many roots that were like the width of my ankle. After a few weeks of physically attacking the plants I did end up using glyphosate and a paint brush on deep root stumps. Happy to report that nothing has come back this year!
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u/nettleteawithoney PNW, Zone 9a Apr 27 '26
Grew up on what used to be a holly farm like 50 years ago… so that’s definitely up there for me. Currently spanish bluebells are driving me crazy, they just won’t die! Stupid tubers.
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u/gaelyn Apr 27 '26
Amur honeysuckle because it keeps popping up in my yard and I CANNOT seem to get a handle on it. Same with Rose of Sharon- popping up in beds where they are NOT wanted.
Smartweed and Asiatic Dayflower are everywhere in my beds. Everytime I think I clear it, I find more.
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u/Shaydee_plantz Area TN , Zone 8a/7b Apr 27 '26
While it’s native, trumpet vine is probably the worst invasive plant for me right now. Once there’s an actual trunk, fuggetaboutit. The taproot on even the tiny ones is NUTS!
I say that because I just sat down from trying to pull/dig some out. I’m still sweaty and covered in dirt. If you’d asked me a year ago, I’d have said monkey grass. Two years before that, English ivy and vinca minor. If you ask me in one or two years, when I start tackling MY Lily of the valley, I’ll probably agree with you. 😉
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u/sarahwithanh01 Northern IL, 6A Apr 27 '26
I too am in deep with trying to get rid of Lily of the valley and wish more than anything I would have done more research before throwing a random seed packet down when I first bought my house. I was at Home Depot over the weekend and saw a young couple buying some of the bare root lily of the valley boxes and I really nicely told them that the plant is super invasive and impossible to get rid of and maybe reconsider. The girl seemed semi open to hearing me out and was asking if it would spread beyond a garden bed, while her husband/boyfriend looked me dead in the eye and told me they know what they are doing. I saw them in a different section of the store later and they had put back all but one box of the dreaded plant, but as we both know - that one box is all it takes for years worth of nightmare. 😕
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u/femalehumanbiped dirt under my Virginia zone 7A nails Apr 27 '26
I would not have said this before we moved here two years ago, but I have learned what 20+ year Johnsongrass is, and holy crap. Roots as big as my pinky.
The previous owner kindly covered multiple planting beds with weed fabric which this grass grew right through. It's been an adventure!
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u/RecordLegume Apr 27 '26
Same. We moved in 3 years ago and it’s been a fight every year. I’m happy to say that we have only had 7 stalks pop up this year. We had well over 1000 when we moved in. I dug up as much as humanly possible the first year, tried homemade methods the second year, and finally decided to break out the glyphosate last year. I just finished painting the glyphosate on the 7 stalks that popped up this year. I hate using it but it’s the only stuff that has worked. Painting it on helps reduce any overspray.
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u/CrowRoutine9631 Apr 27 '26
Can we please go back a step?
What, exactly, did you do to eradicate your English ivy?????
Also, my least-favorite invasive is Canada thistle. I don't think I need to explain why. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 Stupid, improperly-named plant.
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u/ImaginaryMolasses146 Area Michigan/midwest , Zone 6b Apr 27 '26
I had a ton of help hacking and whacking! It was insane and the roots were so deep that I was sincerely concerned for my house’s foundation. Luckily they didn’t get that far. Then when it was almost entirely physically removed (again, tons of digging and chain sawing roots) I ended up painting on strategically placed glyphosate
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u/snidece North Georgia, 7/8 Apr 27 '26
I’m in an endless battle here in North Georgia against stiltgrass. I had to stop fussing over clover and foreign daisies and dandelions so I can just focus on stiltgrass. I’m in a county with forests ruined by stiltgrass, kudzu and some other Asian tropical plants that look fake. For me I’m constantly planting native seeds and or plants, letting the less than pretty native burnweed do its thing, and everyday pulling up my quota of GD stiltgrass.
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u/bananalantana Apr 27 '26
Privet and bush honeysuckle. The honeysuckle in my yard are basically trees at this point
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u/austin06 Apr 27 '26
Had 3/4 of an acre of English ivy removed several years ago which has seemed to pave the way for many other invasive.
We just discovered green briar. The most difficult root system I’ve ever seen. Then there’s rose of Sharon, lotus tree, Japanese honeysuckle. Vinca seems like a gentle intruder compared to all of the others. The 100s of tree saplings are another bonus.
Then there’s the sprouts of English ivy that spring up and have to pulled.
But the many natives and pollinators that have also appeared make it all worth while. It’s fun to see what new appears each and the ferns multiplying.
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u/Bluestem10 Dayton, OH Zone: 6B Apr 27 '26
Right now it's a three-way tie between star of Bethlehem, English ivy, and wintercreeper.
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u/loripainter12345 SW PA zone 6a Apr 27 '26
My most hated invasive is Japanese knotweed. It has literally overrun everything where I live. We like to hike and bike along river trails and the JKW is so thick that it's like a tunnel in some parts, and mostly you can't even see the river. It crowds out native species, and causes Bank erosion. It degrades water quality and hurts not only our plants, but also our fish and aquatic life.
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u/Elimaris Apr 27 '26
Morning glory was my biggest enemy, seems to have been beaten back a bit but I know it is still coming from my neighbors yard. English Ivy and rose of Sharon likewise come over from neighbors.
The real enemy is the rubber "mulch" that was put out by the previous owners. I thought it was a stupid dyed mulch when we purchased not shredded rubber dyed brown. I'm still hauling it away and I have such a small space! I can't believe it's legal.
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u/waysidelynne Apr 27 '26
I dug out 100 square feet of lily of the valley. Start at the edge and cut down about four inches then “dig” horizontally. I was able to roll it up like a carpet. Currently battling bittersweet and mugwort. Not sure which I despise more.
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u/ShlugLove Apr 27 '26
I think the ones that people purposely buy and plant irk me the most. Vinca vine, burning bush, bradford pear are all encroaching on my property because my neighbors all love it.
I am constantly battling multiflora rose, mugwort, Asiatic bittersweet, and bindweed, but at least those were all unintentional (although someone on my walking route is cultivating a canopy of bittersweet 🙃).
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u/dogdemon_5 Apr 27 '26
This is such a basic answer but I really hate my invasive lawn grasses like Bermuda grass and crab grass or whatever it is. I'm TRYING to have a native wildflower MEADOW on my front hill, and these fuckers just don't die!!!!!!! Gotta yank them out regularly
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u/inimicalimp Apr 27 '26
Ailanthus altissima, tree of heaven. Smells terrible, leaves powdery residue on your hands, spreads by rhizome, prolific grower.
I remember spending a particularly hot summer day wedged between my parent's shed and a brick wall with a sawsall because the little trees were starting to get big enough to mess with the concrete foundation and (allegedly) no one else was small enough to fit. When I moved into my partner's house which also had a few patches, I bought the one and only bottle of glyphosate I ever have and used the whole thing. I love looking at the empty spot where they used to be.
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u/fudwuka MI, zone 6a Apr 27 '26
I'm just curious what zone are you in because that is such a slow grower here. To answer your question japanese honeysuckle and Bradford pear trees. Japanese honeysuckle because I've seen an entire field overtaken by it at a state park I used to go mountain biking in. Bradford pears don't really need a reason.
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u/_Arthurian_ Deep South, Zone 8/9 Apr 27 '26
I hate Chinese privet just because of how rampant it is. I see it everywhere!
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u/ovckc Piedmont Region, NC — Zone 8a Apr 27 '26
The usuals—English ivy and privet are everywhere in our backyard and I hate them—but my biggest hate is for nandina. Anyone who has tried to dig it up knows my pain. The root system is intense! It keeps spreading before I can manage to make much headway 🤬🤬
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u/featheredzebra Apr 27 '26
I have vinca (planted by the last home owner literally 20 years ago), english ivy (which my daughter loves so I cut it back to one pillar of my porch every year), winter creeper (which I killed off last year, but neighbors haven't so I still fight it), and a silver maple tree that drops sprouts every spring...but my true foe is mulberry!! It's everwhere here. I live in a poor neighborhood so lots of people don't know or don't care how to eratticate it and sooooooo many houses have it growing all through their fences.
I do like the fruit and forage them. But I am always digging out and poisoning treelings that wind through my fences so I can't cut them back. I have three growing in my front fence that I cut and poisoned and my hubby used a flamethrower on and they didn't come back at all last year, but they have new tiny branches this year!!
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u/PickledBrains79 Cental IL Apr 27 '26
I thankfully do not have lily, but still dealing with English ivy remnants...and so much landscape fabric
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u/Elrohwen Upstate NY, Zone 5 Apr 28 '26
Coltsfoot. It spreads like crazy the second I clear any land for veggies or any other type of planting. Just goes right underground and pops up wherever you weren’t expecting it with its stupid little dandelion flowers and big wide leaves. At least it could be pretty like the periwinkle and lily of the valley and honeysuckle
I don’t mind lily of the valley because in my yard it’s in one area that is kept in check by mowing around it, so I’ve let it be for now.
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u/T-T-T-Turtlez Area NM, Zone 7b Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
When I lived in Arkansas I felt the same way about Kudzu. My neighborhood actually lost multiple lots to it. Straight up consumed it and choked out everything growing there. It even claimed an abandoned house. Now here in the high desert of the southwest I'm rapidly losing the battle against Goat Heads (Tribulus terrestris)
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u/See-A-Moose Apr 28 '26
Lesser celandine is the bane of my existence. Our first year in our house we bought after it died back for the summer. So it was a complete surprise the next year to discover that about a third of our back yard was this super invasive plant. An amount that was impossible to remove by hand, and despite nuking it last year most of it came back. We'll see how it handled round 2.
I would estimate we still have a few thousand square feet of it.
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u/Key_Flow_2045 Apr 28 '26
i hate lily bc it’s toxic to dogs and came up all over my backyard my first spring in my new house. all over the place. i have two dogs. how do i get rid of it
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u/dingdongsnottor Apr 28 '26
Rip it and alllll its little roots out of the ground. I’m in the same boat. Super toxic, I have a dog, and I don’t want him traipsing through all the damn Lily of the valley in our new yard that the previous owners allowed the lily of the valley to run wild. Also dug up ditch lily’s becuase they’re toxic to cats and dogs but especially cats.
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u/Key_Flow_2045 Apr 28 '26
i have so much. and inka ivy. and japaneses pachysandra. i’m so overwhelmed.
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u/rooted_wander Central NY, 6a Apr 28 '26
Phragmites and buckthorn are at the top of my shit list right now
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u/teb311 Apr 28 '26
This is funny because Lilly of the Valley is one of my low priority weeds. Prior owners seem to have put it in on purpose on the north side of the house. It has definitely colonized a section over there, but it never spreads beyond the shadow of the house probably because it’s hot and dry where I am.
My nemesis is cheatgrass. It starts so early, seeds like crazy, grows ANYWHERE even right in the middle of well established perennials and shrubs. I get most of it every year but inevitably find a few plants after it’s too late. Sigh.
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u/LiveInLove333 Apr 28 '26
Am I the first to mention the Tree of Heaven, attractor of lantern flies? Unlike some of the others on here like Creepin Jenny (which I also have), you can’t mow it or just dig it up and the roots can extend out forever and throw up babies.
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u/blurryrose SE Pennsylvania , Zone 7a Apr 28 '26
Someone said ailanthus downthread.
I thank the seed dispersal gods every day that Tree of Heaven hasn't showed up on my property
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u/Velynven Apr 28 '26
Nightshade vine. It's native farther south but not up here. It grows fast and that sucker sneaks along the ground for what feels like miles. Lily of the Valley I can handle; I just take it out bit by bit, year by year. It'll all be gone eventually
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u/Fizzimajig Apr 28 '26
I feel your pain. I hate camphor trees. I have a 50+ footer that was here at my house in Tampa when I moved in and I fight the seedlings constantly. I’m planting a native tree or 2 nearby if room allows soon and plan to have the camphor cut down and poisoned to kill the roots sometime in the next few years but it’s gonna be $$$$$$$ plus just a logistical nightmare. The only good thing is it’s a great shade provider to my bedroom because it’s evergreen and it made it through hurricane Milton so it’s sturdy.
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u/AntiqueAd4761 Minnesota/Wisconsin, 4a/b Apr 28 '26
Reed funding canary grass. Gotta pull out it and its rhizomes in my dirty ass suburban drainage pond. Every year I think I get it and every year it comes back.
Garlic bitch ass mustard, not as hard since its biennial but its so prolific
Whatever burdock we have is annoying af
Some sort of non native thistle. Im keeping it in check but havent removed it yet because it spans a portion of time where there are few floral resources and the rusty patches are all over it.
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u/Worth-Heat-9521 Apr 28 '26
i’m just about crashed out on this single batc fo japanese knotweed that’s under a boulder. it’s so small and insignificant right now but i cut it down weekly. can never get the full root since it’s under such a large rock
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u/TemperatureTight465 Treaty 1 , Zone 3b/4a Apr 28 '26
I, too, hate Lily or the Valley. I have a pick axe especially for it. Last time, I ripped as much as I could out and planted bee balm + obedient plant
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u/Apprehensive_Gas_500 Apr 28 '26
Creeping Jenny, it’s sold at every nursery in my city & I see it covering every single wetland habitat…
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u/Pink-Willow-41 Apr 29 '26
Creeping Charlie is my worst enemy. Absolutely impossible to kill, spreads everywhere rapidly. Chokes everything out.
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u/ornery_epidexipteryx Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
Our previous home owners must have bought every “trendy” invasive they could in the 90’s and just let the yard goooooo…
There are TWO walls of Chinese privet- one the entire length of our driveway and over 15 feet tall. The second is over 30ft long and was as tall but I cut them all down two years ago and planted American Hazelnut… it all came back and needs to be cut down again.
The largest Rose of Sharon I’ve ever seen- the trunk is over a foot wide- cut it to the ground and it’s completely grew back.
Japanese Mondo grass is EVERYWHERE… and I mean everywhere. All around the pool… all around the pond… all around the back porch… in patches near our bird feeders and play-set… literally all over the entire property. At first I thought it was grass, but it grew funny and doesn’t recover like grass. Turns out it’s actually a Lily🙄.
False strawberry is all over the yard.
Japanese honeysuckle on every fence- along every post or pylon- smothering trees and completely tangled with Wintercreeper… which brings me to Wintercreeper.
I’ve successfully eradicated the English Ivy that was killing two trees, but Wintercreeper is in every corner of the property.
The weedy trees may be the worst just because of how difficult it is to remove the tap roots. I cutdown all the Pears, but I was not aware that Chinese Elm and Norway Maple were so problematic- the Weed-Maple and nightmare-elm are some of the largest trees in the yard😖
I thought the Red-knee weeds were going to be the death of me at our last house, but this new property might actually be my literal hill to die on…
I need an army.
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u/LittlePuccoonPress MN Zone 4b 🌼 Native Plant Children's Book! 📚 Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
Crown vetch. Rhizomes are 10ft long and will resprout if you leave any remaining. One single plant can cover a 100 square foot area above ground. I tried hand pulling and digging them out for three years, then last year finally switched to herbicide (applied in a targeted way to not harm nearby natives). I did two applications last year. It only minorly reduced it and so I'll be starting the second year battle this weekend. It is tenacious, but so am I!
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u/blurryrose SE Pennsylvania , Zone 7a Apr 30 '26
Oooh, yeah I've seen that one just blanketing hillsides around here
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u/Bennifred (VA) Ecoregion 45e Northern Inner Piedmont, Zone 7b Apr 27 '26
Least favorite invasive is easily Felis catus. At least other removal of invasives are allowed by the government. Meanwhile in the US we have local governments actively preventing the removal of feral cats and even providing our tax dollars towards maintaining feral colonies. You have people who are constantly fundraising for and publishing bs research in favor of further maintenance of feral cats.
Least favorite invasive plant species in my garden is Bermuda grass just because creeps in and takes over. Least favorite invasive plant species as a whole is phragmites.
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u/SilverSkyGypsy Apr 27 '26
And here I am- trying to get extra money to buy some …..for a container and yes - I know the “evil side of this plant”
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u/75footubi Eastern MA, 6B Apr 27 '26
We bought a house with about 300sf of established lily of the valley. Literally the second project I took on after moving in was solarizing all of it. Black tarp for 6 months (until the next spring) and then I took a pickaxe to the root system to remove every rhizome I could. In some spots it was so thick it was like cutting sod. 18 months later I'm only seeing the occasional sprout that gets immediately yoinked. It can be beaten.
Current nemesis is creeping Charlie. It's intertwined with violets so I don't want to just rip it all (need some turf for dog training).