Lets talk about weeds....

[krakatoa]

This is going to be a thread that will make the most iron clad grower grit their teeth....weeds. And before we go any further, DO NOT PLANT CARMEN'S RUSH/BLUE OAT GRASS ANYWHERE NEAR OR WITH YOUR PLANTS!!!! You will live to regret it, and it's been 10 years of regret!! Carmen's Rush should be called Devils Hair as far as I'm concerned - don't fall for the "that looks so natural with the plants! As I found out 10 years ago, that natural look will stick to you like a bum on skid row - seriously, it will overtake and on some occasions KILL your plants by growing right over them and suffocating them - when you pull them out GET THE ROOTS as well or you basically gave the thing a shot a plant steroids and it comes back stronger, the roots are very long a white - they look like Sarracenia roots without the "hairs" on them and they reseed....I have re potted my whole collection which took almost a month, and guess whats trying to pop up, though small and now easier to remove, but found a few that hid between taller pitchers....AAAAUGGHHH!!! Please folks, do not utilize this "plant" in your collection!!

[jfowler]

From my own experience, I'd like to add a few items to krakatoa's list of things to keep out of an outdoor bog garden. I have included links to Google images for these items so that you will recognize them if you see them in the wild and are tempted to dig a few for your own bog garden:

1. We have a native plant that really looks pretty. I believe it grows all along the eastern Atlantic coastal plain. It's called Yellow Star Grass (Hypoxis hirsuta). tinyurl.com/254wlv9 It has bright little yellow flowers and when I first saw it in the wild, I thought it would work well in the bog garden. It did work well -- too well! It seeds prolifically, very prolifically. It took me four years to eradicate it, and every now and then, I'll see another one pop up, and I have to yank it out by the roots!

2. Another yellow flowered plant that is found growing with our native pitcher plants is a species of the Xyris genus. tinyurl.com/23cvrvu There are quite a few species in this genus, and all of them have little yellow flowers on long, slender stems. The foliage is what originally attracted me - very nice, narrow, sometimes twisted leaves. Interestingly enough, it is also a close relative to the Yellow Star Grass, and it seeds prolifically, as well.

3. When I first planted the bog garden, I received a ladies'-tresses orchid from a friend in Maine. I still have it, and it blooms every fall. However, when I received it, there were a few spikes of a ground moss called Juniper Polytrichum Moss (Polytrichum juniperinum) growing with it. tinyurl.com/2edzf55 It looked nice, and I thought it would be great if it grew in patches, here and there. I have written in this forum (in the Outdoor Bog Garden section) about my troubles with this invasive plant. Suffice it to say, after just a year or two, it started taking over the garden, choking out the smaller plants and not allowing seedlings to grow. Fortunately, I have been using RoundUp, carefully applied using an artist's brush directly on the moss spikes, and it has worked well to control it. I have seen absolutely no adverse effects on any of the plants I want to keep. I pull up the moss that is growing next to the plants I wish to keep so that I don't inadvertently brush RoundUp on those plants. Only next year will tell if it comes back from spores. My God, I hope not -- it is definitely an invasive...

I do have a few other ground mosses that tend to form little hummocks or mounds. They are very well-behaved, and add a little color to the garden. I don't know the species names, but when seen in the wild, they do not act as ground covers as does the Polytrichum moss.

Hope this helps some...

Jim