POSTED BY KIM — I’ve added a new category to our blog: plant thugs. We all have experience with them, and today I’m going to talk about one of my thugs: Tanacetum feverfew. When I first saw this sweet little face in the nursery, I couldn’t resist. Do you blame me?! Come on! It’s adorable!
And then it re-seeded. Oh…my…goodness. Feverfew *everywhere.* So now when I see its green leaves sprouting in the ground, I beat it to the punch — pull it up (and pull, and pull, and pull), and maybe leave one or two plants that will flower so I can enjoy them in small quantities.
Other plant thugs might include:
- Lily of the valley
- Chameleon plant (Karen Collins has a funny story about how this got started in her garden — she asked for a piece from a neighbor and planted it herself! – and the years she has spent trying to remove it)
- Chinese lantern
- Campanula
- Mint, of course
- Annual poppies
- Ladybells
- Cleome
Now if you love it, a thug is not a thug. I have campanula that has completely overtaken sections of my garden, but it’s a nice groundcover that keeps the weeds down, and it flowers on top of it — I love it. Same with annual poppies — I ADORE annual poppies. I don’t care where they come up, I’m keeping them.
You can see in the picture below where I started yanking out sections of the feverfew. Live and learn! 
Don't be fooled by its sweet demeanor. This plant will follow you home.
2 Comments
October 14, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I’ve got feverfew and actually never had any problems with it!
Lovely photos and it is very cheery, the classic daisy shape – you can’t go wrong!
October 14, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Isn’t that funny? It figures I would have the only misbehaving feverfew!
That’s okay — it can stay, and I do enjoy it everytime I see it…