Pampas Grass

[Blaze]

I think it's a shame. We had a pampas at our old place, easy to control, it never spread anywhere else. We would chop it back in the middle every 2 years or so and it would always grow back, but never out of control and we didn't have a problem with it suffocating other plants. However, we've noticed that it seems to grow well on wasteland or terrain en friche - just as buddleia does.

@hughnique The only thing that successfully killed off the rampant bamboo we had was neat glyphosate painted on a freshly cut stem. At that time it wasn't illegal and for us it was a necessity - we were normally very against using that sort of product even if it was legal.

[Loup-garou]

O-o-o-o-o-o-h, you naughty people. Swingers or illicit planters ................... You know which you are!

[RobertArthur]

@ hughnique, glyphosate, easier than my two years warfare with axe and pickaxe. And building an underground Ligne Maginot. So far, twenty years later, everything under control. The small songbirds like it. Also because it is a perfect hiding place, plenty of birds of prey here.

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[hughnique]

Did I read in some of the blurb that the pink plumed one, as opposed to the white one, is not classified as invasive, we certainly have not cut our two, pink ones, back for several years and they are not suffocating anything else. I do have a few containers of glyphosate might try it neat as advised.

[Bayleaf]

In all the years I've dealt with and sold pampas grass, I've never seen any become invasive. The fact that this plant was bracketed with japanese knotweed as an aggressive invader makes me wonder if it was mistaken identity at the outset, and it was actually bambou!

Yes, they can become scruffy. Yes, you can cut your hands on them if you're not careful. But I've only seen them in isolation in a garden, so despite their ability to produce a very large seed output, I've never seen them take over a garden like certain other plants do. Their dense growth habit must be wonderful for small critters - and they need all the help they can get as humans aspire to have clinically neat and perfect gardens. Sod the wildlife!

I'll get my coat - time for work!

[Quiksilver]

I think it's more a case of French bureaucrats not having the faintest idea that there's more than one species so throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Been gardening for 45 years and have never come across an 'invasive' Pampas grass. Big, often too big unless maintained, but not invasive. Then the media get hold of a 'story' and suddenly it's classed with bamboo and Japanese knotweed . Another French law that anyone with a grain of sense will just quietly ignore.....

[Naylor's Ark]

We have Japanise knotweed growing at the side of our lane, in several areas. They just cut it down with the rest of the "foliage". I thought you weren't supposed to do that. Saying that, it doesn't seem to be spreading much anyway. I would say bamboo is the worst culprit for that. And the worst to get rid off.

[Blaze]

@Quiksilver @Bayleaf
There's a lot of ignorant rubbish spread about which unfortunately people believe. Birds and animals have always "propagated" plants - I love finding something unexpected in the garden that I haven't planted : buddleia, cotoneaster, pyracantha, aucuba japonica and viburnum plantlets get potted up and eventually replanted or given away.

Buddleia seems to be the latest in the firing line : apparently bad for butterflies because it doesn't give them sufficient nectar and has become a nuisance. I like buddleia and have grown all my bushes from cuttings (dead easy) or stray plantlets found anywhere. The insects and butterflies, particularly red admirals, seem to love it. I'm sure if they weren't getting sufficient nectar they'd choose other flowers ....

Now if anyone can tell me how to get rid of daisies in the "lawn", I'd be deeply grateful ! During a hot dry summer a couple of years ago, the grass in some parts of the garden just died and as we weren't quick enough reseeding, the daisies have taken over. They suffocate everything else, even the dandelions, which I'm quite happy to leave for the bees.

[Quiksilver]

I don't think that there's a weedkiller quite that selective, Blaze . Either dig them out by hand if not too many over a big area or cadge some of the stuff that the farmers use on winter wheat, which kills broad-leaved weeds. If you 've got the patience to spot treat, that soothes the conscience, if not the ecolos

[Blaze]

Thanks Q. Far too much to dig up by hand but we might have to resort to spot treating ... OH treated one area with something non-selective from the garden shop and it worked well.