the invasive bellflower will fool ya!
The Head Groundskeeper here at Madison WI is ignoring the peace-at-any-price people and has declared war — not on the pusher man but on that seed of Satan, creeping bellflower. Campanula rapunculoides was imported out of Asia — probably from the Houthis before Trump’s tariffs. Once found for sale in garden centers. Does put out a belfry of attractive, bell-shaped purple flowers but that’s the cherry cola in the arsenic.
The aggressive weed captured Crimea and this spring has taken over the Donbas. Propagates through the air by drone-like seeds — thousands of them per plant — and underground via trench warfare, rhizomes a foot deep. They’re crowding out the coneflowers for which we paid good money. They’re taking over the lawn. Terrorizing the vinca patch.
“It’s a pain in the butt.” — Mark Renz, UW professor and Extension weed specialist
Yank them out of the ground and prepare to be fooled. The slender roots near the surface of the soil break off compliantly. But lurking underneath is a tuberous rhizome the size of a parsnip. This stuff makes creeping charlie look like a hothouse flower. And charlie don’t surf.
“I do think bellflower has been spreading over time; we got more calls about it last year. But a lot of people think it is pretty and leave it,” UW Extension horticulturist Lisa Johnson told the Head Groundskeeper. They are unaware that it is on the DNR (invasive species) list, Ms. Johnson added.
We can’t fight it alone. We’re calling in the artillery — battle-hardened veterans dropping death from above: super-strength Roundup containing at least 18% glyphosate or dicamba. Then hit ’em with triclopyr herbicide, although those do not break down in the environment as rapidly or safely, it is reported. Hey, the Experimental Farm is not ruling out Agent Orange.
A poison called clopyralid also works but can only be used by licensed applicators. I’m contracting with a guy that looks like Dale Gribble from King of the HIll. Hoping he’ll go nuclear. The herbicides work better if the weed is wounded, so we’ll run a mower over them or fire up the string trimmer.
After the chemical assault, we’ll smother the big coneflower circle with impermeable black plastic to suffocate and cook the invasive weed over the long hot summer. No sunshine soldiers wanted in this battle.
“The other option is digging it out and sifting through the soil for small root pieces,” horticulturist Johnson told us. “I did this one year in an infested garden bed and it worked for about three years, but then it came back again. It may take a season or two to get them under control.”
→ Dane County’s UW Extension pointed us to this examination of creeping bellflower.
→ See also this webinar on bishop’s weed, Canada thistle and creeping bellflower.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in the garden, we shall fight on the lawn and flower bed. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our turf, whatever the cost may be. … we shall never surrender.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Why the outbreak? The paucity of snow cover this past winter? We blame global climate change and Joe Biden.
10 responses to “Send in the Marines”
I’m contracting with a guy that looks like the unibomber. I wonder which of the two, (yours vs. mine) is more lethal to these encroaching weeds.
Too late for a prescribed burn?
Enjoyed this episode. I’ve fought a losing battle with crown vetch for 25 years!
Is crown vetch contagious?
I think Creeping Charlie is worse. It grows and spreads in the grass and the only thing that kills it, also kills the grass.
Creeping Charlie? There’s a joke there somewhere. Your description reminds me of an old flame who was bad news, except this bozo’s name wasn’t “Charlie”.
“Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger.”
– Captain Willard
🤣 🤣 🤣
Agreed. Charlie spreads faster than panic among progressives at the prospect of their maids and gardeners being shipped back to Honduras.
Actually, I’ve got remarkably little charlie this year and haven’t done an all-lawn weed & feed in several years. Key is to fertilize the grass; will out-compete charlie. But do contract for a lawn treatment; it will get rid of the charlie and you can go from there. In my experience.