I used to have problems with lamium when we lived in Cheshire until I
learned that the seeds ripened under cover of the flowers which were still
on the plant.
In the case of most other flowering plants the seeds mature when the flowers
have obviously died back.
I think the invasion of lamium is due to seed rather than root spread, to
control it you get in early and hard.
Having said that there are many varieties withh variagated foliage , yellow
flowers etc and it thrives well in dry soils so don't write it off.
Regards
David Taylor
"snafu steve" wrote in message
...

"Bevan Price" wrote in message
...

"eddy" wrote in message
...
i am looking for something easy like spirea anthony waterer
that spreads all over the place .
any ideas on this one?
not too high .

Lamium maculatum - dead nettle - arrived uninvited in my garden. Low
growing, pink to purple flowers, moderately attractive so I let it stay.
Big
mistake, within 2 years it was trying to take over the entire front
garden,
smothering nearly everything else, roots spreading everywhere. Still
picking
out new growth something like 10 years later. So, it will do what you
want,
but you will probably NEVER get rid of it completely if you change your
mind
next year.

Bevan

About 10 years ago our neighbour planted periwinkle, not sure what
variety,
the common variegated one. We're still trying to get it to stay their side
of the fence. And when we moved to our current house there was a sumach
tree on the boundary between us. They couldn't remember who planted it or
whose garden it was supposed to be in, it was half and half so we jointly
decided to get rid of it as it was blocking the light and was much too big
for the situation. Three years of chopping off the suckers later, it went
for the easy life, under the footpath and surfaced in the communal grassed
area. It doesn't seem to have liked the football games/bike races etc.
Haven't seen it for a while now, fingers crossed.

Steve