Montbretia

135man

Hello I got a lot of Montbretia in my garden and I was wondering other than digging them out thanks

looksee

Well you could wait until it has grown a bit then spray with a systemic weedkiller, but that would still leave a lot of bulbs and mat of stalks to get rid of. I have just dug (read: I paid someone else to do it :-) ) something like 10 bags of spanish bluebells and montbretia out of a border over the last few days, now I have got to get rid of the bags... As any new ones come up, and I am sure they will, I will pull them out, bulb and all, before they get established.

pwurple

I dug a load out, sprayed any new shoots with roundup... Buried the whole lot under 3 ft of topsoil and the bugger still came up. Montbretia is the devil.

Sustained digging for years is probably the only way.

Marhay70

Yep, digging is the only way and don't think because you dig up a big clump you've got them all, you need to search for every tiny bulblet. Either that or just live with them.

135man

Thanks very much for the replies must sharpen the spade so !!

sconhome

135man wrote: »

Thanks very much for the replies must sharpen the spade so !!

Splitting them will only double the trouble!

looksee

The bulbs (well I think they are corms really) grow in kinda 'multi-storey' arrangements so you have to go well down to get them all. And even then you will continue to find them coming up for years...

bbam

I'm up in the Cavan area and would take any clumps people are disgarding..

tampopo

I'm in Dublin and would take any clumps people are discarding.

Supercell

bbam and tampopo, you must be mad, once you put it down you'll never get rid of it.
I've been pulling the stuff out of a flowerbed in my front garden for the last three years and even after digging it over completely and getting rid of every single corm and bulb i could find somehow there's more still coming up, its a war of attrition.
Think of the future guardians of your soil and what you are inflicting on them!!

bbam

Supercell wrote: »

bbam and tampopo, you must be mad, once you put it down you'll never get rid of it.
I've been pulling the stuff out of a flowerbed in my front garden for the last three years and even after digging it over completely and getting rid of every single corm and bulb i could find somehow there's more still coming up, its a war of attrition.
Think of the future guardians of your soil and what you are inflicting on them!!

I've the space :cool:

Hesh's Umpire

I'm the same, I'm in Laois and would take the bulbs. I want to put them in a wooded area and ditch way away from my "formal" garden.

dball

Does Mombretia spread on a lawn, I just put some in on a bank beside our garden last year and now im thinking it might have been a mistake>

looksee

I mentioned montbretia and bluebells. Putting in montbretia is one thing, can I just make a plea for not planting Spanish Bluebells in woodland? It would be like introducing grey squirrels again! They are thugs of plants and are bullying out the native bluebell - there is now apparently a very common cross between the native bluebell H. non-scripta and the Spanish Bluebell H. hispanica. It would be a pity to lose the native bluebell, they are a more attractive colour, are sweeter smelling and more delicate than the non-natives.

cotton

Hesh's Umpire wrote: »

I'm the same, I'm in Laois and would take the bulbs. I want to put them in a wooded area and ditch way away from my "formal" garden.

Same as me in Greystones, would love some.

Hesh's Umpire

looksee wrote: »

I mentioned montbretia and bluebells. Putting in montbretia is one thing, can I just make a plea for not planting Spanish Bluebells in woodland? It would be like introducing grey squirrels again! They are thugs of plants and are bullying out the native bluebell - there is now apparently a very common cross between the native bluebell H. non-scripta and the Spanish Bluebell H. hispanica. It would be a pity to lose the native bluebell, they are a more attractive colour, are sweeter smelling and more delicate than the non-natives.

I agree, my post probably indicated a woodland when it's more like a scrub area with some sallies and bushes.
Thanks for the PM looksee.

Marhay70

dball wrote: »

Does Mombretia spread on a lawn, I just put some in on a bank beside our garden last year and now im thinking it might have been a mistake>

I reckon, after reading this thread you'll have decided you were right to think it was a mistake.
Montbretia won't be obvious in a lawn because it is cut regularly but it will spread in any soil and will grow in any conditions. It is classified as a noxious weed and shouldn't really be sold anywhere but will often come in innocently if people donate plants from infected gardens to church fetes etc.
In your case, with a new planting, you might have some hope. I would dig out the plant with a fork and then take out the surrounding soil for about a foot around and a foot deep. Put the soil into a container and sieve through it to look for any remaining bulbs or corms before replacing it. Then pray to St. Jude.
Don't put any parts of the plant on the compost heap or even in the bin, burn if you can or microwave.

beertons

I hate the stuff as much as moss and ivy.

pwurple

Please please please don't plant it. Or if you do, not anywhere it can get into the wild. Monbretia is a south african invasive species which does huge damage here. You might think it looks nice but it wipes out irish wildflower species.

beertons

I remember seeing it on a small patch on the ring of Kerry a year or two ago, and thought to myself, that'll be the whole way round soon enough. Ha.