For some gardeners, lilies of the valley are a real nuisance. The spring flower has spread throughout the garden via rhizomes or seeds, leaving little room for other plants. Fighting lily of the valley is not easy. Tips on how to permanently remove the flowers.

Lily of the valley is not always desired

This is how lilies of the valley reproduce

If you want to eradicate lily of the valley in the garden, you need to know how the flowers spread in the garden.

On the one hand, red berries form from the flowers, in which seeds ripen. The seeds are ingested and spread by birds.

The lily of the valley multiplies even more via the underground rhizomes. They form more and more foothills and cover great distances within a few years.

Methods for combating lily of the valley in the garden

To combat lily of the valley, you must ensure that the rhizomes do not migrate and that the flower cannot seed again.

  • dig up rhizomes
  • prevent self-seeding
  • Prepare lily of the valley liquid manure

Manual work is required for eradication

The only really helpful way to permanently get rid of lily of the valley is to dig up the rhizomes. To do this, you have to use a digging fork to dig up all the beds and places where lilies of the valley have spread.

Insert the digging fork into the ground and lift the earth. Now you can pick out the rhizomes by hand. Make sure that you get hold of all the root parts, because the robust spring bloomers will also sprout again from very small pieces.

Do not use a spade to destroy the plant. With the spade blade, you only pierce the roots into smaller parts that are more difficult to pick out of the ground.

Prepare lily of the valley liquid manure

Lily of the valley doesn't like their own waste. Prepare a slurry of cuttings and water the soil with it. This inhibits the sprouting of rhizomes.

What to do with the plant remains?

Do not throw roots and faded inflorescences on the compost, throw them in the dustbin. On the compost heap, the rhizomes find ideal conditions to sprout again.

tips

If you want to eradicate the lily of the valley completely, cut off all the leaves immediately. The lack of nutrients weakens the plant so much that it can only form a few rhizomes.

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