Are you planning to spruce up your landscape with new plants? Hold on! 🛑 Before shopping, be sure to review the top 11 plants commonly found at garden centers that you should avoid! These seemingly harmless species can quickly turn invasive, wreaking havoc on your garden and the surrounding ecosystem.
From fast-spreading ground covers to aggressive climbers and unruly shrubs, we expose the potential risks they pose and the detrimental effects they can have on native flora and fauna.
But don’t worry, we won’t leave you empty-handed! We also offer alternative plant suggestions that are non-invasive, ensuring you make environmentally-friendly choices for your landscape.
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Trees with Invasive Root Systems:
https://gkh.us/50157
Tools For Removing Weeds And Invasive Plants:
https://gkh.us/185942
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Top 10 Flowering Ground Covers:
Drought Tolerant Plants:
Brighten Up Your Shade Garden:
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CHAPTERS
0:00 – Introduction
0:34 – Invasive Plants
1:20 – Chameleon Plant
2:26 – Lily of the Valley
3:14 – Butterfly Bush
4:06 – Callery Pear
4:51 – Bamboo
6:12 – Burning Bush
7:04 – Barberry
7:57 – Scotch Broom
8:47 – English Ivy
9:44 – Japanese Honeysuckle
10:29 – Mexican Evening Primrose
#invasive #plants #landscaping #nature #conservation #wildlife #perennials #shrubs #vines #gardencenter #nursery #gardeningtips
36 Comments
Creeping Jenny…. looks great but very much a pain to control. At least it's easier to pull out than some of the others!
I like Lily of the Valley and have a hard time growing them. Running bamboo running on your perimeter wall is the best option cover yourself against nosy neighbors – less water and maintenance.
The pink evening primrose is vey difficult to get rid of.
I've been battling lily of the valley for years… also when i bought my house i pulled out several holly bushes… I'm still finding runners and new starts from those nasty things! Horseradish is awful and honestly i have locust trees that are nasty too… if a branch breaks off you'll find runners growing on the other side of your yard for years! 😵💫🥺
Lamium is an issue in my NC garden.
If I might offer (zone 7): Red Buds are very invasive too (~4 min). Their seeds spread & come up all over & the roots are deep. They're really a pain in iris & day lily beds, etc. Also, vinca (vine ground cover) is very invasive too. Poplar trees are also very invasive. I had the roots on one go well over 100 ft & numerous starts come up from those roots.
I planted a dwarf size sumac tree that changes to a bright orange in the fall, however it sends out runners all over the garden and landscaping, I am constantly nipping off sprouts everywhere in my yard, they are very invasive.
The chameleon plant is a very invasive in the UK and I found out this myself. It also has a really unpleasant smell when you break it! The butterfly bush is spreads all over by seed on land that is poor and dry where other plants struggle, but it a fantastic plant for butterflies so a positive benefit. Bamboo is grass on steroids again I learnt this from experience, choose one that clumps and it should be OK. The rest on your list here in the UK are not such a big issue. i wish lily of the valley would be a bit more evasive.
I've never had mine budhleia self seed.
Infact our conservation dept have imported an evil weevil that eats its leaves and they leave a horrible yellow goo behind.
Thank you for posting, such an important topic! It’s pretty upsetting what the garden centers still sell – Callery Pear is very easy to buy in my area, despite it being such an ecological disaster! ❤
Along with honeysuckle, wisteria is another beautiful but horrendously invasive species in my area. That definitely goes on my list. I am a little disappointed that when talking of the bamboo, though, you didn't mention native giant river cane. It's harder to find for sale, but it's a native 'bamboo' that hosts several bird & insect species that are currently in danger of extinction because of the decline of the native 'canebreak' areas. It looks closer to decorative bamboos than other grasses and the species could really use the boost of people adding it to their landscapes.
Here in zone 8 AL we have summer snowflake. Have had several visitor mistake it for Lily of the valley. Summer snowflake is very well behaved.
Nandina is beautiful, but is actually invasive and deadly to a number of bird species. Cedar waxwing being one.
Most ornamental grasses are themselves invasive. We planted it years ago and have been fighting it for decades.
Look, anything can be invasive. I have spider plants, several kinds of 4 o'clocks, Blanket flowers, Zinnias, Mexican primrose – all spread crazily and I have 1/3 acre under landscaping. My biggest job is deciding what plants remain where they are, which to give away and which to add to the compost pile. Zinnia, blanket flowers, Wandering Jew – these are some of the best around.
How about Wisteria?
We've been getting rid of Mexican fire bush for three years. Same with Lily Of the Valley and Spiderwort.
Headache for me and through my entire state of Maryland – Ailanthus altissima (Chinese sumac). I don't know that there are any garden centers infernal enough to sell the stuff, but it attacks us from all directions and is so hard to eradicate even from a small garden. More pleasant to look at but invasive and definitely sold in garden centers – Wisteria floribunda or sinensis (Japanese or Chinese wisteria). And not just invasive but also thorny, Rosa multiflora (Multiflora rose).
Needs more geographic specificity. Several of your cautions not appropriate for Texas.
Spiderwort is horrible.
I live in Austin- nandina/heavenly bamboo and ligustrum/chinese privet are extremely invasive and very tough to eradicate. Sad to say, you can still buy them in the big box stores. Four O'Clocks are native to Mexico, so tolerate Austin weather and are perennials here. However, they require a bit of care to thrive, so I don't consider them invasive. A month of 105 degrees without rain will kill them, but not nandina nor ligustrum. Our big freeze of Feb 2021 semi-killed many of the ligustrum, but most regenerated dozens of shoots from the base of the trunk not unlike the Hydra of mythology. Nandina was totally unaffected.
BURN IT!
I also found that wisteria, columbine and rose of sharon to be invasive in my yard. It took me years to finally get rid of those three , and I am still finding columbine in places far away from where they were planted originally.
thank's !
Thanks for this informative video- the attempt to eradicate vinca has been my personal Waterloo 😮
Central Europe. There is a very 'nice' japonese bush, yellow/white and green striped thick leafes… very pretty to look at, and it covers 'useless' space. It goes by the latin name 'Euonymus fortunei'. We've been trying to get rid of these monsters for 40 years now. Never ever add them to your garden, and never ever think: 'Oh, it's such a tiny little plant, it fits right in between these two larger bushes and will cover the ground, what harm could it do? No, this is a delusion: it might produce a several meter long root, you will never ever be able to root it out completely, and it will grow into and beneth the shelter of your other bushes, hiding out of sight for some years, and then it's suddenly back all over the place.
English Ivy and Virginia Creeper are the worst! Constantly cutting it back and pulling it down from my trees, lawn, and my home!! Should have been illegal for anyone to plant!
An extreamly bad, bad tree is a Chinese Elm Tree…
I love quaking Aspen Trees but they send seeds and roots all over the place.
Russian Sage is also invasive…. How ever… there is a dwarf russian sage that i absolutely love. It doesn't throw seeds nor does it send out runner roots. I gets fuller each year, and is a major bee magnet. It only get 2-3 feet tall also
Please also .ake a video kn bad trees.
Great video, i wanted a Burning Bush… Well not anymore. Thank You
I made the mistake of planting lemon balm & it is still popping up everywhere! Biggest regret that I have EVER planted!
Thanks ❤
Tickseed coriopsis. Never again! It smothered my cone flowers, butterfly milkweed and liatris. It took me 3 years to remove the majority of it. I'm still digging sneaky little sprouts but it's manageable. It never rebloomed once the first bloom died. Lessons learned.
Breaking Bad is reason enough for me not to buy Lily of the Valley.
I've paid professionals twice to dig up and remove my bed of Lily of the Valley. It's back bigger than ever. They're so pretty, and smell so nice in Spring, but are close to killing the Camelia on one side and Holly on the other. Extremely invasive is how I'd describe them.
I have also tried to rid my garden of Chameleon, Lilly of the valley, and my neighbors wintercreeper. 🤦🏼