Would you let lily of the valley grow around your hostas?

FreakyCola · Post by **FreakyCola** » Apr 23, 2008 10:56 pm

Silly me, I planted some LOTV in just a couple places, and now it has spread out and is starting to get around a bunch of my good hostas. What do you all think?

And if you wouldn't let it grow, what's a good way to get rid of it? They are growing so close to the hostas so I'm afraid of using weed killer, and it's going to be a real pain trying to dig them all out since there are so many. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet & start digging though, before it really gets out of hand!

Thanks for your opinions!

John · Post by **John** » Apr 23, 2008 11:05 pm

I sure do! I just dig out the excess after they've bloomed, and move them elsewhere. I must garden in sort of dry shade, so they are not the problem they would be in better soil with more moisture. I was very please to find that my striated-leaved ones multiplied nicely over the winter! Wish the pink ones were as co-operative as the white.

jgh · Post by **jgh** » Apr 24, 2008 7:05 am

flowerchild59 · Post by **flowerchild59** » Apr 24, 2008 7:30 am

You can dig it up and I will pay to give it a good home, not near the hostas though, they are real stolniforous(sp) and hostas and them do not get along!!!
Sorry about the spelling this am, not enough caffeine yet

DBoweMD · Post by **DBoweMD** » Apr 24, 2008 9:30 am

no.
The rhizomes will invade the hosta roots and they are a bear to get out, you have to dig the whole plant up and get the dirt off the roots to separate them. I have done this.
I have hear that Lily of the Valley can harbor nematodes too.

kHT · Post by **kHT** » Apr 24, 2008 10:19 am

Alright I'm getting out the round up as I didn't plant them where they are and now know the two don't mix as they slowly creep to the hostas.

renaldo75 · Post by **renaldo75** » Apr 24, 2008 11:24 am

I have some LOV from the yard where I grew up planted on the north side of the house. The haven't done nearly as well as they did at home so they aren't a thick mat fortunately. Last year when I was digging in the bed to plant hostas the roots/plants that weren't where I wanted them to be seemed pretty easy to pull out. Maybe I got lucky - maybe I'll change my mind...

Wanda · Post by **Wanda** » Apr 24, 2008 9:09 pm

GOD, NO!

"And if you wouldn't let it grow, what's a good way to get rid of it?"

I would suggest napalm, DDT or Agent Orange...otherwise you are just out of luck! Start digging and sifting the soil now to remove every nanoparticle of LOTV root, and use a crochet hook to work out every bit of LOTV root that is intertwined in the hosta roots...and in maybe a decade or ten you can eradicate it.

Sorry...but that darn stuff is taking over my little dab of lawn...marching out of the bed I had it in (to cover an old stump) like Sherman going through Georgia!

wanda

LucyGoose · Post by **LucyGoose** » Apr 24, 2008 10:59 pm

Nope! Got rid of it long ago!

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Apr 25, 2008 9:16 am

Wanda wrote: I would suggest napalm, DDT or Agent Orange...
wanda

That's about the truth, Wanda. I have some, and one of the beds it's growing in is getting shady enough for hosta, so I've been yanking it out for a few years now.
There are a few really strong associations with LOV for me, and I'll probably always have some. It's one of those love/hate plants.
I have seen some in a few gardens with what looked to be foliar nematodes, so I do believe that is a concern.
Linda P

Patrushka · Post by **Patrushka** » Apr 25, 2008 12:12 pm

NO, NO, NO!!!

Wanda, You hit the nail on the head!

They looked so pretty on the cover of the catalog. A lovely circle around a tree containing Hostas, Lilies of the Valley and Virginia Bluebells. There may have been ferns too. The LOV were so well behaved in the pic. I didn't listen to my mother. She told me not to plant them unless they were in a contained space. At my old house they were in a narrow bed next to the house surrounded on the other three sides with sidewalk.

I DON'T like them coming up in the center of a hosta. I started digging them out last year. They are looking very healthy this year. I dug a ton of them out on my neighbors' side of the hosta bed. They put down sod early this Spring. They are coming!up through the sod.

Bite the bullet and start digging NOW!

Kas · Post by **Kas** » Apr 25, 2008 6:43 pm

Gosh! Mine died! Just as well, I guess. Plus, if you have small kids it isn't good to have around since it is poisonous.

Kas

FreakyCola · Post by **FreakyCola** » Apr 28, 2008 1:05 am

Wow, I think I hit a nerve there with my LOTV question!

In 1991 we moved here and there was a sporadic patch of it behind the garage. I dug it up, moved it to the front and it stayed where I planted it all this time until last year, when it decided to go traveling.

I mostly don't like the eyes coming up & fooling me into thinking the nearby hosta has suddenly gone from 2 eyes to 50!

Now I just don't like the look of it and when I saw how much it has spread this year I started to get worried.

Scary thing too, that first year I thought I dug it all up behind the garage. The next year a few plants came up which I dug up. I haven't seen any since, but this year IT'S BACK! Guess it thought it was doing so good in front, it might as well spread throughout North America, making a return visit to it's original home on the way to picking up my house & moving it out of it's way .

When I was little my grandma had a beautiful patch of it at the end of her porch. It stayed the same year after year so I guess I was being nostalgic when I moved it into the front yard.

And there are houses close by that have sweeping front lawns with curved gardens of ferns and other gardens of LOTV. It's so well behaved there, I wonder how they do it?????

As long as you're all feeling sorry for me, I might as well tell you near the LOTV is a bed being overrun by gooseneck loosestrife which I really really really have to dig up and really really really dread! And I won't mention the chamelion plants and archangel in a third bed that is starting to spread into Canada. And let's not even talk about the Wisteria that choked out my redbud tree and has now decided to spread out on the ground in 30 foot runners!

Think I'll switch to container gardening!

ViolaAnn · Post by **ViolaAnn** » Apr 28, 2008 8:33 am

When I was little my grandma had a beautiful patch of it at the end of her porch. It stayed the same year after year so I guess I was being nostalgic when I moved it into the front yard.

I bet Grandma was feverishly working to keep it contained. LOL

jgh · Post by **jgh** » Apr 28, 2008 10:39 am

We'll never be able to completely eliminate this noxious little woodland weed... because back in kindergarten or something some demon in teacher form taught my wife the saccharine little ditty...

White coral bells upon a slender stalk
Lilies-of-the valley line the garden walk
Oh don't you wish that you could hear them ring?
That will happen only when the fairies sing

ARTIST: Trad and Anon
TITLE: White Coral Bells
{Sung as a round}

once in the mind, it is virtually impossible to eliminate... much like the plant in question.

Of course, it could be worse... if she had grown attached to the similar "Row-row-row your boat" I might be making payments on a cabin cruiser or something...

John · Post by **John** » Apr 28, 2008 10:45 am

Guess I am the lone vote for "yes"? Mine are so well-behaved! Again, it must be the dry shade, and competition from the maple tree roots.

Diana · Post by **Diana** » Apr 28, 2008 1:48 pm

Oh jgh! I haven't heard that song in well over 50 years! Now it is on replay in my head. Over and over again.

-Diana

wishiwere · Post by **wishiwere** » Apr 28, 2008 2:41 pm

Well, I love them!

But! I've kept them contained for 20+ years by surrounding them with pavement on 4 sides too! They are just this last 2 years making it through to the hosta garden by tunneling under 3 feet of black weed block, with 90 lb pavers over them and such. It's napalm time as Wanda says!

I actually have a patch of them 5' X 20 that have grown there for all this time. Started out as 1'X20. I give them away like hot cakes at a sunday breakfast and they multiply as rapidly!

If someone mentioned wanting some, let me know. I couldn't believe my little sister (a florist) said they charge like $90 for 10 when they put them in wedding sprays! WHEW! I'm in the wrong business! I told her I'd send her as many as she needs for 1/2 that!

Seriously, I'm going to pack a ton up for her after they are finished up for the season.

renaldo75 · Post by **renaldo75** » Apr 29, 2008 4:27 pm

When I was working in a floral shop in So CA in the early-mid '80s, Lily of the Valley retailed for $40 for a bunch of 10. And usually they were so spindly that the lady who wired our wedding flowers had to ever-so-carefully wrap a taped wire around them to reinforce & make them usuable. I told my mom on more than one occaision that she was sitting on a gold mine with the thick carpet of LOTV that bordered all of the north side of the house. She never believed me...

But that was the case with many things I told her about living in CA. She always referred to it as the unreal world. LOL My reality of living there had nothing to do with her reality of living in southwest Iowa all her life.

I don't remember her patch ever escaping into the yard either. But then I'm sure it was mowed every week so it never had a chance to begin with.

wishiwere · Post by **wishiwere** » Apr 29, 2008 4:33 pm

They do escape, probably just never get tall enough to bloom!

It's so hard to miss the buggers though! They've got a beautiful leaf for vases too. Ah well...........maybe I've a found a way to get more hosta! I'll go hock all my LOTV this spring!