WHAT is this plantor weed?? Can anyone help?
Lee Sim
Posts: 5
Hi, can someone PLEASE tell me what this ground cover plant is and how to get rid of it? I was given a small plant of it by a friend a few years ago and in spring it comes with a wee blue/purplish flower which does not last long. It has invaded my garden and I cannot get rid of it even after spraying with round up. I did this last year after summer and it turned brown but came up again in spring. Photo attached. Very grateful if you could help and advise please.
0
Posts
SORRY- title should say Plant or Weed?
Looks like a violet
In the sticks near Peterborough
One of the violets, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_riviniana. It's has such pretty little flowers - we used to pick bunch after bunch for our mothers, and to take to school to put in little fish paste jars on the windowsills.
If you really don't want it then spray again, not letting it flower and seed. Although you killed it off last summer it will have already seeded. You may have to spray for several years.
I love it and I'd be happy to let it grow, just hoeing out what I don't want.
Snap! again Nut
Yes, I'd say a violet. I'm trying to establish them in a shady patch by the hedge. I have a dark leaved purple one and a white one.
Our garden is all in gravel with bushes and it has infiltrated the gravel like a carpet and the flowers come and go so quickly that it is like a green carpet all the year round. Are you sure it is not a weed? It certainly grows like a weed - but I have just Googled the dog violet and it certainly seems the same one- just like you have all said. Do you think I should let it spread where it wants or get rid of it? It is very dominant and the roots spread a very long way under the gravel.
I have this in my garden too and just try and keep it under control - difficult because it is a prolific self-seeder. A weed is simply a plant growing in the wrong place - sounds like this is a weed for you! If you don't like it, as the other posters have said you will be able to get rid of it in time. It will have thrown seeds about and some of these will germinate over the next few years, so you will have to be vigilant about pulling the seedlings up - you will recognise them easily after a while. I had a golden hop that it took two years to kill but I won in the end and I am currently fighting off an invasion of Herb Robert!
It's a British native plant and likes the conditions you have there so is growing 'like a weed' - I'd let some of it grow, it's pretty in spring, and use a Dutch hoe pushed around in the gravel to keep it under control
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH9QJYbp3zo
Thanks for all the advice and help everyone. I have asked everyone I know and nobody knew what it was.
Just watched the video Dove as I've got a Dutch hoe but never been sure how to use it (inherited tool from OH) and love that the chap in the clip starts off reclining on his lounger!