The morning glories didn’t thrive or blossom this summer, but I didn’t mind. The 7 rose bushes, 2 hydrangeas, 4 ferns, and 11 lavender bushes all did well during the rather mild summer. It was a great year to have dropped the entire yard savings budget on plants for the back beds. I have such random luck from growing anything from seeds anyway.
But then, in early August, and for no apparent reason other than some serious heat arriving, the morning glories went from puny, non-flowering branches to a gigantic mass of landscape-engulfing, wildly-blooming wonder.
It ate 2 rose bushes, 2 lavender bushes, the butterfly bush, a free-standing trellis, and a some floundering ivy. I keep stepping outside and checking, but the neighboring plants seem to be enjoying the shade. I’ll trim it all back if they start to choke each other, but so far, it just looks like a zany party in my yard.
So tell me, what plants became herbivores in your yards this summer? And if I should cut this stuff back now, do tell. We all know I’m a cooker, not a yarder.
2 responses to “Plant-Eating Plants”
Wow! Did you throw a little red meat into your Miracle-gro?
As for me, this time of year brings out the Darwinistic side of me – the whole natural selection thing. If plants were meant to be watered, dern it, they need to develop their own little sippy cups. My grass is going dormant, my hydrangea bush is curling up its little leaves – even the giant hosta that threatens to overtake the entire flower bed earlier in the summer is looking peaked in this un-Godly heat and humidity. In contrast, look at the weeds that grew a foot in less than a week – pretty darn impressive, considering. My hydrangea needs survival lessons from the chick-weed.
Well, its not my plants/tard that its eating but my vinca is speading into the neighbors yard. I figure if they dont want it, they’ll mow it down as I already told them that I’m not quite sure of property lines…
However, these dumb Nandinas keep popping up and killing anything around them including a dogwood tree (Virginia’s state flower/tree). The only thing it hasn’t choked out is the evergreen holly bush/tree and its prickly, spider home-making leaves…