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Known as a wildflower, perennial weed and many other unrepeatable names, it is the gardeners’ nightmare – but is there any good to it?
The plant: Herbaceous perennial looking remarkably like a white morning glory! It’s in the family Convulvulaceae and was indeed once known as Convolvulus. It has a beautiful trumpet flower and is loved by bees, butterflies and hoverflies. It is the food source of many moth caterpillars including the Convolvulus hawk moth and the elephant hawk moth. It can be seen rambling through hedgerows, up trees and fences and seems to survive anything. It spreads by roots, shoots and seeds. The roots can regenerate from the smallest section, the shoots can layer themselves and the seeds can remain dormant in the soil for over 30 years! It’s an incredible plant which thrives when all around it have given up in floods, droughts and arctic temperatures. Even though it completely disappears in winter, it will be back!!
The weed: In our gardens it can invade everywhere, twining up crops, flowers, shrubs and trees. It smothers plants like a sheet and competes for nutrients, light and water. The shoots can reach 3m long and are impossible to remove once established as they attach themselves like string around the stems of your prize plants.
What is the answer?: At CGS we totally organic and are embarking on a renovation programme. Perennials are being dug up and bindweed removed before potting and put in quarantine. Shrubs completely cut down and other plants cleansed of the perpetrator. Once the ground is ‘clear’ we are applying a thick mulch. The bindweed will lurk underground and pop up in the spring when we will be ready for it. The theory is if you can see the ground you can hoe off the new bindweed shoots as they pop up. This is completely opposite to my well stocked garden. It can never be obliterated but over time can be kept under control with systematic perseverance!!
l Cathie’s Gardening School runs gardening courses and practical workshops as well many other enjoyable learning experiences. Very limited spaces available next year.
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