Bush clover has cropped up on lists of invasive plants. (Lespedeza). (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
Thanks to the warmer than normal fall, the end-of-season landscape cleanup is still under way for a lot of us.
As we traipse around, cutting back hosta or pulling tomatoes, it’s a great opportunity to think tough love – what is working and what isn’t.
Although I really like that ‘Pink Fountain’ bush clover (Lespedeza thunbergii) blooms in late summer, it’s just too big. It is totally out of scale, dwarfing its neighboring perennials. This perennial is more like a shrub at about 4 foot tall and wide. It takes up a lot of space in my small yard for a late-season bloom. Bush clover is in the pea family, which that really puts down roots, so getting it out will be laborious.
Add to that, bush clover has crept up on several lists of invasive species. Ellen Jacquart of the Nature Conservancy and chairwoman of Indiana’s Invasive Plant Species Assessment Working Group. It’s planted along I-69, Pigeon River Fish and Wildlife Area near Howe, Indiana, other places and is spreading, she said.
The plant was heavily promoted by Division of Fish and Wildlife as good for upland birds, but now it’s considered invasive. Sterile varieties of bush clover may not be a problem, she said.
I’ve also decided to pull out some no-name ordinary hostas and replace them with some new, variegated yellow-green varieties to trial. While I’m at it, I’m mixing in some snowdrops (Galanthus spp.). I’ve also marked three ‘Halcyon’ hostas to move, because they have outgrown their space. I really need to learn to believe the plant tags.
The Judd viburnum (V. x ‘Juddii’), which I planted 20 years ago, is fully grown and with a beautiful form, fragrance and fall color. I’m wrestling with beginning a rejuvenation pruning in spring or pulling it out. Rejuvenation pruning removes one-third of the oldest and largest branches from the base of the shrub in year one, another third in year two and the final third in year three.
The process opens up the plants and reins in the size a bit. For more information about this, check out Purdue University Extension’s free download, “Pruning Ornamental Trees and Shrubs” http://bit.ly/2fqsmCM.