On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 15:28:57 +0100, Victoria Clare
wrote:

~"Franz Heymann" wrote in
:
~
~ The weed that bugs me more than anything else is that dratted small
~ Epilobium (is it Epilobium montanum?) Seems like every single damn
~ seed germinates! and the stems pull off just above the roots, so you
~ have to make sure you don't just pull the top off.
~
~ More of a nuisance to me than ground elder, bindweed and brambles
~ combined (OK, well maybe not the brambles...)
~
~ Yes. That one is a real little *******, if you will excuse my
~ language. It gets into all the most impossible crooks and nannies and
~ is the most prolific seeder in my garden and grows with the speed of
~ light. It is helped along by the fact that one of my neighbours has a
~ paddock which he seems to use specifically for cultivating E montanum
~
~
~It's got into my greenhouse! I don't think I shall ever get it out again.
~
~I wonder why this weed (Epilobium) is so rarely mentioned in the usual
~gardeners tale of woe? Does it even have a common name?

I know it as a willowherb. But yes it is a darned nuisance. It's in my
crocosmia/allium bed so I can't really go digging to get it (and it's
friend the bindweed) out again.

~The other one I find a real pain I can't even remember the latin name of -
~like a sort of weedy geum with tiny yellow flowers and knobbly reddish
~roots that work into every crevice.
~
~I call it 'that thing'. It knows what I mean.

My favourite hate I called strawberry stuff (or worse) till one day
my memory woke up and told me it was creeping cinquefoil (potentilla
reptans). That too has yellow flowers and runs everywhere... and the
roots regenerate too. Sounds like it could be your geum-like plant.

I'm also not terribly fond of hairy bittercress, especially when it
gets in the lawn.

~
~Give me dandelions any day: my rabbit assistants soon reduce the roots to
~useful compost...

pass the spade...

--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

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