Plant "Lady's mantle"

SplanK

When we moved in, we had a plant in the garden which we have now identified as "lady's mantle". It looked fantasic and grew well in our very clay very wet in winter, very dry in summer soil!

However we had issues - is was spreading like no tomorrow and growing in places we did not want it. Its appeared to be a persistant little !!!!!!.

So we dug up the main plant and over the last couple of years been removing the new growth from around the garden. However it just keeps coming back all over the place.

Good old google search seems to suggest that this plant spready by seeds, but I am thinking it could also be spreading as a large root system?

We are getting so fed up with it that we are now using weed killer in an attempt to remove out garden (so if it is spready by a root system - hopfully the week killer should do the trick) - ive applied killer on all over 3 days so far and so far the smaller ones are going, but some of the larger ones look as though they are trying to resist?! Another down side is as well, the plant has managed to work its way into the lawn

Has anybody else experianced this plant before and any advise on its perminant removal or keeping on top of new growth?

Sublime_2

Perhaps could use as a herbal remedy. Many benefits, see here.

SplanK

yeah.... i would rather remove the !!!!!! regardless of potential herbal benefits!

peter_the_piper

Roundup type of weedkiller is the only real solution. It would be a nice plant if it did not want to take over the whole garden. Try wearing a pair of Marigold (other types of rubber gloves are available) gloves and then put a pair of woolen ones on top, did hand in solution of roundup and grasp the little bu***rs and wipe the weedkiller up the leaves. Enables you to kill it without affecting the surrounding plants.

Linda32

I like it myself, which dosn't really help you. I guess Roundup will do the trick.

AFAIK it grows by seed rather than root as we've never bought any but could almost be self sufficient in the stuff.

SplanK

Thanks for your reply.

I had a feeling weedkiller was the only way forward. Currently using Rosolva 24hr stuff and applied over 3 days so far, but just sprayed on. seems to have worked for the smaller ones, but the larger ones seem to resist it a bit better and I spied what I thought were new shoots from the base of the plant!

Thankfully - most of the area that the plant is trying to grow is empty anyway at the moment as a lot of the stuff we bought a couple of years ago has not established very well due to the clay soil and was killed off during the frost so killing off other plants at the moment is not too much of an issue!

Mojisola

It only spreads by seed - but there are lots of them! If you catch the plants when they are young, they pull up out of the ground very easily. Pull the young plants up every time you spot one and you'll get on top of them.

lostinrates

It does spread, but it doesn't seem to exclude other planting, rather providing ground cover so other weeds can't move in. In that respect I found it in the past very useful, and it was one of the things I made sure we brought into our new garden.

Mojisola

lostinrates wrote: »

It does spread, but it doesn't seem to exclude other planting, rather providing ground cover so other weeds can't move in. In that respect I found it in the past very useful, and it was one of the things I made sure we brought into our new garden.

Like lostinrates, I like the plant and have it in the garden. It's quite magical after rain when drops of water sit on the leaves like jewels.

It's easy to weed out or transplant when it crops up somewhere I don't want it. It's great to have a free supply of new plants each year.

Errata

I love it, but it's very, very, very promiscuous