Orange Daylily, Purple Loosestrife, & Ajug Avoid These Plants In Your Garden

Over the years of gardening, one learns, by mistake, that some plants are too aggressive in the garden and should never be planted, as they will crowd out many desirable plants.

From personal experience, I am going to describe three plants to avoid introducing into your perennial beds.

The plants are the common Orange Daylily, Purple Loosestrife, and Ajuga.

I was lured into planting the aforementioned perennials. All three have attractive flowers and leaves and in my design, they would have been perfect. However, in a few short years, I was to learn planting them was a blunder.

This is my list of plants to avoid, but every gardener has their own list of plants, which they could readily compile.
　
The common orange daylily Hemerocallis fulva, is seen blooming along highways in late spring and early July. Native to Eurasia, including Japan, Korea, and China, this orange daylily was introduced in the Americas by the 17^th century English and escaped human cultivation. The orange daylily is now so common, people (myself included) mistakenly think the plant is a native plant.

Years ago when I was landscaping, a person offered me all of the orange daylily clumps I could handle and I readily took them home to add to my small developing perennial garden.

Now, I have a very large garden area of just orange daylilies and can appreciate why the person wanted to get rid of them.

Very aggressive, this common orange daylily spreads by its rhizomes and cannot be bound by rock boundaries or edging. Hard to eradicate, the common orange daylily has been deemed a noxious and invasive weed by some states.

A gardener needs to be very careful before introducing the plant. It is not a matter of will the orange daylily takeover the garden, but when will the orange daylily takeover.

Because the orange daylily is here to stay I can recommend a landscape use. Still keep it out of the gardens because you will not tame this beast.

However, the orange daylily makes an effective plant to use on eroding banks of soil.  Because of the plant's very hard and compact roots, soil erosion is prevented.   When in bloom, this  daylily's orange blaze of color is to be appreciated.
　

Another plant that has been sold and is still regrettably continuing to be sold in some Ohio garden centers is Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). I purchased several plants for my own garden and gave a plant to my parents because of the purple-pink midsummer blooms.

Big blunder. Though the Loosestrife flowers are pretty in midsummer, the plant’s stems are very woody and has overtaken many wetlands and crowded out other beneficial native plants which provided nesting habitat for birds.

A heavy seeder, Purple Loosestrife will take over your flowerbeds and appear in the flowerbeds of your neighbor, along fences, and cracks in the pavement.

By law, Purple Loosestrife is a nuisance species in Wisconsin. Being deemed a nuisance plant, in Wisconsin, Purple Loosestrife is illegal to sell, distribute, or cultivate the plants or seeds, including any of any of its cultivars.

Most of us have had some need for ground covers in the landscape.


Ajuga was one plant that caught my attention. Ajuga has purple leaves, hovers close to the ground, can grow as an understory plant to the taller perennials, blooms, and can be tucked into the crevices of a rock garden.


Unfortunately, Ajuga likes to move around and will eventually creep into your lawn. In a season, where there was lawn, soon there will be patches of blue blooming Ajuga in the spring.