Spiderwort is my favorite weed in my garden. It’s very pretty, and actually I quite like it. But it’s taking over! It has entirely eaten my big bed of native plants (well, I guess it feels at home there) and I want it gone! I don’t like to dump a bunch of poison on stuff, and anyway when I spray herbicides it seems I always kill the stuff next to what I want to kill (and this is all up in with my actual plants that I paid good money for.) When you try to pull this stuff you never get the roots, you just get this sticky sap on you. It always comes back. It’s also hard to smother. Ideas?
Bump?
Not taking credit for any secret insider information or personal experience, just facts gleaned from five minutes with Google.
Assuming you’re talking about tropical spiderwort, a.k.a. Bengal dayflower, a.k.a. Commelina benghalensis, and not the pretty little tradescantia spiderwort that I’m familiar with.
- It’s nasty.
- It’s new.
- It’s resistant to Roundup.
- It regenerates from broken plant pieces, so tilling makes it spread.
- It’s taking over the Southeast.
- You are not alone.
- It’s not going to go away easy.
Your best bet is to contact your local Master Gardener program at the County Extension Office and ask them what they do. Most of the stuff online is dealing with control in field crops, which isn’t really relevant.
I would like to pit my super-invasive morning glory vines against your spiderwort. Hopefully a fight to the death, for both.
No, actually it’s the tradescantia. Like I said, I love it and I think it’s beautiful. However, it’s hard to get rid of.