“Second Front in Garden War”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana
Grasshoppers are still attacking the garden, but there were casualties on their side since I lasted posted. I must now report on a second front that has opened in the Garden War of 2010. It is not animal foe, but plant one. I am fighting and determined to eliminate Artemisia Limelight. Don’t ever plant this stuff in the garden.
I planted this about six years ago, and it was fine for about two years, and then – trouble. I love variegated plants and this seemed perfect for the partial shade of our entry garden. At first, this seemed like a great plant for that area. Its variegated foliage brought some light and color especially in the shadier parts of the area. In winter, when so much of the garden is dormant, this was a nice addition. The cold did knock it back a bit, but in spring it came back just fine. I even transplanted some of the spreading plants. After the second year though, it became a thug. It seemed for every one plant I pulled up, three more grew in its place. Part of the problem is that when yanking this plant out, the stems break leaving the roots. Another mistake I made was that I would pull up most plants but would always leave a few because this was such an attractive plant.
Leaving a few plants was the problem. It always seemed to spread too much. The last two years, I have been pulling up the little babies, but still they kept coming. This spring I decided I would give no quarter to this plant that was invading my garden and making it look so unkempt. I have been digging up and pulling Limelight for four months, and finally, I may have it beaten. I say “may” because we have just had several days of heaving rain and that may help it come back. This afternoon when I checked, I could only find about five plants which were quickly dispatched. It seems this is a battle I may be winning.
This is such an attractive plant, and it is a shame it is so aggressive. In researching this plant, I have found I am not the only one having a problem with this particular artemisia. Learn from my mistake, don’t plant this artemisia in the garden. It may do well in a container, but beware. I have read that even then it tries to escape.