Rules of gardening & FFF

 OK TPP was the victim of a very busy week.  What a relief to get that overwith.  And it rained after two long weeks of hot dry weather.  My rain gauge recorded 3.5"  and every bit of it was needed.

Here is a  Friday Fabulous Flower, but it is a violation of a TPP gardening rule.  This is a very pretty plant, but one of our gardening rules, based on sad experience, is never plant a loosestrife.  Every violation of this rule has ended badly.  This is Lysimachia clethroides, the gooseneck loosestrife.

It flowers in July a plus, and it does OK in shade,  but you can never control it. So says TPP.

Friday Fabulous Flower - Gooseneck loosestrife

The Phactors are on their way to the Botany 2017 annual meetings in Ft. Worth TX. This means crossing OK as quickly as possible.  Right now, a 12 hr day driving finds us somewhere in south central OK fed better than we expected (an Italian steakhouse?) and recovering with road trip margaritas (the recipe has been posted before), and nothing much to do but post a FFF.  Now TPP's gardening rules never to be broken involve one  rule you will violate only once unless you are a real slow learner - Never plant a loosestrife.  They can be beautiful devils, handsome but very invasive. Today's FFF is the gooseneck loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides), which is elegantly handsome in flower, but it is still a hated invasive.  Technically our rule has not been violated; a previous owner planted it, maybe decades ago.  It occupies a shady hedgerow bed, but keeps trying to expand. Two other yellow flowered species were nuked when their true nature showed itself, but one still appears from tiny bits of root or rhizome.  Yikes! At any rate this one produces massive amounts of rhizome, and is tough to corral, and nearly impossible to totally remove.  But wow, that is some lovely inflorescence and they make a decent enough cut flower in late June.

Friday Fabulous Flower - prettiest no-no you can plant

TPP just reminded himself about one of his most important garden rules: never plant a loosestrife. They simply will not behave and they are difficult to eradicate once they are in your garden. Last year (one year after planting) a small patch of Lysimachia ciliata looked grand next to our pond, but this spring it erupted to occupy a greatly expanded area; yikes! After a rugged extraction, TPP now notices that bits of rhizome survived and are trying to reestablish the patch. It won't happen, but you pays the price for being stupid and planting a loosestrife in the first place.  Now today's feature plant the gooseneck loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides) is not quite so explosively invasive, and it is a totally lovely plant, but the patch covers a pretty extensive area and Mrs. Phactor has decided it's coming out, just not yet.  But it is quite attractive what with the white flowers in a shady area and the graceful curve of the raceme. Don't be seduced!