Pretty weeds

As I recall, I used this title once before during my early days of blogging and at the time was surprised by the volume of traffic it received by comparison to my other posts.  I quickly concluded that search engines had confused my content with a different kind of "weed." That may happen again but oh well.  This post is focused on the invasive weeds that have taken over an empty lot up the street from our house that I walk by nearly daily.  The house on the property apparently burned down decades ago, well before we moved into the neighborhood fifteen years ago.  It's a double lot, probably two acres in size with a view of the Port of Los Angeles.  There are trees and other remnants of the original landscaping, including decayed entrance paving.  Why the lot hasn't been sold and another home (or two) built on the property eludes me.

Possibly the most prevalent and invasive non-native weed in Southern California is the yellow one you see here, known as mustard weed (Brassica nigra).  It can grow up to 10 feet tall and, when the flower stalks die, they pose a fire risk.  The weeds on this lot are cut down once or twice a year by the city and I understand that the expense is charged to the property owner, who no longer interacts with our HOA.

Do you see the purplish flowers mingling with the mustard weed?  Those are tall shrubs, native to Mexico and Central and South America, commonly known as fiberglass plants (Wigandia urens).  Sold as ornamental plants, they have an invasive root system.  They run amok on this lot. 

Here are closeups of the most prominent weeds:

I briefly entertained the idea of taking a cutting of the Wigandia to try in my garden.  However, I was put off by their rangy structure, size, and spread and then I learned that, in addition to their invasive growth habit, their leaves can sting your skin.  Check out the nursery comments included at the bottom of the plant description found here. 

Closeup of the Wigandia's flowers.  I won't even try cutting the flowers to pop into a vase!

This wild radish (Raphanus sativus) also has pale purplish flowers and it's considered a highly invasive week in California too. Its roots and sprouts are considered edible, though, and the plants have been used in folk medicine to treat a range of ailments like urinary infections and heart conditions.

Onionweed (Asphodelus fistulosus) was originally sold as a decorative plant.  Native to the Mediterranean region, it's considered a noxious weed by the US Department of Agriculture.  Its flowers are pretty - for a nanosecond.  The dried plants pose a fire hazard. 

Next door to the empty lot, another plant grabbed my attention.  It's not a weed but it's a plant I've never seen anywhere else so I'll share it here.

This is Roldana petasitis, aka velvet groundsel and California geranium.  It hails from the mountain areas of Mexico.  It's reportedly drought tolerant; has large, velvety leaves; and it flowers abundantly.  Why have I never seen it anywhere but in front of this house?  San Marcos Growers has a write-up on the plant that can be found here.

 

I spotted this fellow further down the street, also checking out the local plants.

The big news is that we've had measurable rain and there's more on the way.  As I schedule this post for publication Wednesday morning, we've had nearly an inch and a half since Monday, bringing our seasonal total-to-date (counted from October 1, 2025) to close to ten inches.  As our roof-top weather station was clogged for a short time, my total may be understated.  I tried to check our total against that tabulated for our zip code but that number, and the associated AI evaluation of our rainfall this water year, is completely screwed up, showing just over one inch of rain in total.  While our peninsula has undoubtedly received less rain than nearby valley, foothill, and mountain areas, it's not that bad!  Like our president, AI needs to learn to acknowledge factual errors when they occur if it's to be trusted.  Human oversight is obviously required.

We had a brief pause in the rain on Tuesday.  There were even blue skies at intervals.

Photo taken during the late morning hours yesterday looking southeast from my back garden

The warmth of the sun on seat cushions on the back patio caused steam to rise from them, something I always find a bit alarming at first glance

More rain is expected overnight and into the early morning hours, followed by another pause for most of Wednesday.  Rain is back in the forecast for Thursday, to be followed by a weekend pause with another stretch of rain possible from next Monday through Wednesday.  My two smaller rain storage tanks are full again and I estimate that the 275-gallon tank is about three-quarters full.

Although some of my flowers have been flattened by the rain, I'm still discovering new blooms with every spin through the garden.  Here's one:

Ferraria crispa (aka starfish iris)

I took another local hike last weekend before the rain arrived.  I have it on the docket for Friday's post.

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Weedy Wednesday: Medicago lupulina

Cathy of Words and Herbs periodically publishes posts under her Wild & Weedy Wednesday meme during the summer season.  (Here's her last post on the wildflower known as ragged robin.)  As I got caught up addressing my struggle with a relatively handsome but excessively vigorous weed, I decided it was an optimal time for me to share my experience with Medicago lupulina, known by a variety of common names including black medick, hop clover, lesser trefoil, and nonesuch.  Curious about the "nonesuch" name in particular, I looked for an explanation and discovered that it was regarded as a superior plant (i.e., "without equal") offering high nutritional value for feeding livestock.

I'm sure I've seen it before but, if so, I can't recall it ever taking over a particular area of my garden as it has this year.  I yanked out a mass of it when I initially discovered it a month ago, only to find it appeared to have redoubled its effort to achieve world domination last week.

It's said to grow up to 2 feet in height but it was less than a foot tall year; however, it covered an area 5-6 feet in diameter here

Spreading via creeping stems to form mats, its tiny leaves resemble those of clover, although what stood out to me were its distinctive but equally tiny yellow flowers.  It reportedly thrives in dry soil (bingo!) and full sun, although the area here lies in partial shade.

Complicating matters, it was growing alongside and tumbling over Erigeron karvinskianus (aka Mexican or Santa Barbara daisy), which is virtually a weed here too

This is a closer look at the leaves and flowers.  The plant is in the legume/clover family and, like other plants in that family, can be helpful in fixing nitrogen in the soil.

The plant's native to Europe and temperate areas of Asia but it's a well known weed in lawn areas in the US.  The area most densely covered by the weed is in one formerly covered by lawn, which we removed in or around 2016 but perhaps that's where it gained its initial foothold.  I'm not sure what prompted it run amok this year but then a lot of weeds seem to be running roughshod through my garden this year despite our low rainfall.

The plant's effort to encompass this Phormium 'Maori Queen' forced my hand

Unfortunately, not only do its stems creep but it also develops a long taproot, making it difficult to remove.  I did my best to uncover the Phormium shown above and the other plants in the same bed.

Whether I got out all those tap roots is questionable but it looks clear for the moment.  Almost all the Erigeron went too as the 2 plants were intertwined.

Much of the area between and surrounding the flagstones had been planted with creeping thyme but I tried to weed out stems that crept into the thyme while leaving it in place where I could

I'm by no means done with its removal.

The areas in more sun between the flagstones still contain a large number of taproots that don't want to let go.  I may have to remove the stones to get at those roots.

Medicago has also taken hold in parts of my cutting garden in the gravel paths adjacent to the base of the raised planters.  It's nominally easier to pull out there, probably because the soil is moister.  It's generally described as a summer annual so whatever I don't manage to remove may die out at the end of the season but I'll continue my effort to eradicate what I can.  The plant's said to have medicinal properties as an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory but these claims aren't well substantiated.  Historically, it was also reputed to have been used as a laxative and an aid in blood clotting and resolving digestive issues but I don't recommend experimenting with it even if it's not considered toxic!

Do you have any experience with this weed?  If so, what approaches did you use in removing it?

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wordless Wednesday: Weedy Opportunists

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party 

The upside of drought

When the soil is as dry as ours was for more than eight months, there are far fewer weeds to pull!  As much as I yearn for rain, it does generate a plethora of weeds.  Try as I can to keep weeds under control, I usually focus on the areas I see at the front of my beds.  The areas tucked behind the plants up front often get ignored.  When I spotted two brightly colored blooms and moved into a bed in my front garden to check them out, I discovered gobs of weeds I hadn't anticipated.

Helleborus 'Anna's Red' and the first Freesia stood out among all the green around them

Here's what I saw once I moved beyond the plants at the front of the bed:

I removed a large but floundering Centaurea 'Silver Feather' shrub in front of that tall sprinkler, revealing Shasta daisy foliage (Leucanthemum x superbum) behind it.  I found a lot of crab grass (Digitaria sanguinalis) hiding among the Freesia foliage - making its removal more difficult - but overall at first glance it wasn't too bad.

Things looked a lot worse as I moved further into the bed, where the crab grass mingled with the foliage of Santa Barbara daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus), alyssum (Lobularia maritima), and clover (Trifolium repens).  The latter 3 are attractive plants with weedy tendencies.

Pulling the weeds without dislodging Freesia bulbs was a challenge

I'd cleared most of this area a month ago so it wasn't looking too bad, although it could use mulching to suppress new weeds

I spent a few hours weeding the front border, cutting back some larger plants in the process.  It's not perfect by any means but I think it looks better.

This is an "after" shot.  In addition to pulling weeds, I cut the ornamental feather grass (Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum) to the ground, thinned the other ornamental grasses (Festuca californica), and trimmed back the other Centaurea 'Silver Feather'.

Another after shot

I can't claim all the weeds are gone - I pulled only some of the Santa Barbara daisy and alyssum foliage - but it looks much cleaner

Not all grass seedlings create a problem.  I've been encouraging the growth of Lagurus ovatus, also known as bunny tail grass.

I didn't deliberately sow bunny tail grass seed along the front walkway but I'm leaving it alone there for the time being.  The dry arrangement sitting next to the front door let loose the Lagurus seed.  I've actively promoted this grass in 2 other areas as I enjoy the plant's flowers.  Hopefully, I won't regret letting it do its thing.

Now that I've made a dent in the most problematic section of the front garden, it's time to tackle parts of the back garden; however, that's a job for later this week.  The soil there needs to dry out further - or that's my story any way.

The back garden border is an even bigger mess than the front garden.  That dark stem in the middle of the photo belongs to a spent wild carrot (Daucus carota 'Dara')) I failed to pull late last summer.  There are already wild carrot seedlings popping up among the other weeds!

Because this area is full of prickly plants like aloes, agaves and yucca, pulling weeds without getting stabbed is a dicey proposition

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wild & Weedy Wednesday: Desirable weeds?

I'm joining Cathy of Words and Herbs for Wild & Weedy Wednesday again this week to show off a few plants that have shown a proclivity for straying.  They aren't native wildflowers and they haven't shown up on any of California's invasive plant lists.  Their weedy tendencies may be anomalies unique to my garden, or possibly attributable to the heavier rainfall we experienced during the course of the past two years.

The first plant is Wahlenbergia 'Blue Cloud', which I purchased from a Northern California nursery by mail order in September 2013.  It was described as a drought-tolerant perennial groundcover.  It's a member of the Campanulaceae family and, according to Wikipedia, native species in this genus are found on every continent except North America.  This one delighted me for a few years before seemingly disappearing, at which point I added it to my wish list on the nursery's site.  As it turns out, that nursery no longer carries the plant; however, a replacement proved unnecessary when my original plant roared back with a vengeance in recent years.

It's wiry stems are looking decidedly weedy here in my south-side garden, growing between the agaves and right through the middle of a Dasylirion longissima.  The buff-colored seedpods seen on the right may be responsible for its spread, although some Wahlenbergia species reportedly spread by rhizomes.  The species wasn't identified by the seller, beyond stating that it was native to South Africa.

The plant also likes to place itself in pathways between paving stones, where it's easier to manage.  It can be pulled up relatively easily where it's not wanted, although that doesn't guarantee that it won't reappear.

The second plant is Salvia lyrata, also known as lyreleaf sage.  I saw it on a blog at some point in 2019 and, coincidentally came upon plug plants at my local garden center a short time later so I brought home a six-pack.   I was attracted more by the burgundy foliage than the flowers, which aren't impressive in my view.

I planted all 6 tiny plants in one very dry area in my back border.  They managed to merge into a messy mass as shown in the photo on the left.  I plan to dig them up and move them around this coming fall; however, they've already spread themselves here and there as the photo on the right indicates.  That plant is sitting in the middle of the flagstone path 8-10 feet away from the original plug plants. 

Still others have appeared much further away.  The one on the left is in the south-side garden and the one on the right is in the front garden.  How they got there is a complete mystery to me.

The third plant, a white and yellow-flowered Scaevola, gets credit for self-seeding itself in my garden but it's too soon to tell if it'll spread any further, although I'd be happy if it did.

I had a similar plant in a back garden border in 2012-2013 but it disappeared.  This one appeared between paving stones in a nearby area following this year's rainy season, at least a decade following its earlier disappearance.  

Any plant that manages through years of drought to reappear with vigor in response to sufficient rainfall is to be cherished in our changing climate, where long periods of drought punctuated by intense atmospheric rivers at periodic intervals are predicted to become more common in my part of California as the years progress.  The challenge will be to manage their spread during the wet years.  Visit Cathy at Words and Herbs for more on wild and weedy plants.

With temperatures rising, plants are suddenly hustling to bloom, some after long periods of what I can only describe as stasis.  As I've already seen a few quick exits in response to last weekend's heatwave, I thought I'd append views of an assortment of the most recent arrivals to this post given the prospect that their beauty may be fleeting.

Echinopsis oxygona annoys me by opening one bloom at a time.  The blooms seldom last longer than a day.

 

In contrast, the flowers of Epiphyllum 'King Midas' generally hang on for a few days once they open.  Luckily, I caught 2 flowers just as they were opening on Friday evening (as shown in the left column).  I photographed them again the next morning when they were fully open (as shown in the right column).  Epiphyllum 'Monastery Garden', which I mistakenly identified as 'King Midas' in last Wednesday's "Late Arrivals" post, lasted nearly a week before its flowers crashed but these 'King Midas' blooms had collapsed by Sunday morning.

The first of my Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) bloomed last week but its petals were singed along the edges by Saturday's heat

This Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Marianne Charleton' has been in a large pot since 2020 but, on the rare occasions in which it's bloomed, it withers quickly in the heat.  I'm thinking of giving its pot to a more worthy subject.

When this large clump of multi-petaled Leucanthemum x superbum flowers, it seems to do so almost en masse

Buds on the first bloom stalk of Lilium 'Pretty Woman' are just opening.  Three other blooms stalks are trailing behind at different stages in development so I'm hoping they'll provide flowers on a more gradual basis.

Wherever you are this Wednesday, I hope Mother Nature is being kind.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wild & Weedy Wednesday: Wanna-be weeds

I'm dealing with more weeds in my garden this year than I can ever remember.  I haven't made a dent in what's out there.  Summer's heat may fry some of them once our marine layer lets go of the coastal area but in the meantime I'm trying to remove all those working to set seed as best I can.  Among the true weeds are an ample number of plants I'm calling wanna-be weeds.  I haven't had many rampant self-seeders in the past, possibly because drought conditions kept the plants inclined to that under control.  This year is different.  I'm joining Cathy at Words and Herbs for another edition of her Wild and Weedy Wednesday meme.

The prime culprit is Daucus carota 'Dara', commonly known as wild carrot.  I sowed one packet of seeds in the fall of 2020 and haven't sown any since.  When the plants first appeared in 2021, I'd forgotten all about them and initially feared that I had poison hemlock growing in the garden.  The flowers are lovely and I've cut them numerous times to fill vases.  As the flowers grow smaller, I pull the plants up with their deep taproots intact.  The self-seeded plants returned in the same general area in 2022 and 2023.  This year, following a second year of heavier-than-usual rain, they've not only returned in increased numbers, they've spread to other areas of the garden as well.

Although I pulled some large "seedlings" from this area several weeks ago, I didn't realize that this one was flowering until I tried to walk through this narrow footpath behind my back border on Sunday.  I ended up cutting numerous flowers for an IAVOM arrangement.  I don't want to see a lot of seedlings taking over the path next year, or worse yet spreading to the slope beyond the hedge.

Here's what I saw from the front of the border when I thought the blooms had only just gotten started

I've discovered seedlings in various parts of the back garden, including the 3 shown here, which planted themselves in between flagstones

I've pulled the majority of the plants I've come across from other parts of the garden.  I discovered this one on the south-side of the house when I was thinning the Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima, another rampant self-seeder).  I let it stay but I'm a little afraid I'll regret that decision later.

I planted a single four-inch pot of Cotula lineariloba (aka big yellow moon and brass buttons) in 2014.  After it took over a large area, I pulled it out, or at least thought I had.  When it showed up again in discrete patches following a period of drought, I added three plants in 2022.  Well, it's returned to its weedy ways.

Boosted by the rain, seedlings like the one on the left have popped up in between flagstones in the back garden.  It's also extended the space it occupies in the bed surrounding our backyard fountain (right), climbing around - and over - Gazanias and other plants.

I planted Gaura lindheimeri (aka bee blossom, and now apparently classified as Oenothera lindheimeri) in or around 2014.  It's spread itself around ever since, albeit mostly in adjacent areas.  My only complaint about it is that the plants are difficult to impossible to eradicate once established.

Oenothera lindheimeri is almost as weedy as its cousin, Oenothera speciosa.  Both have pretty flowers, though.

I sowed seeds of Lagurus ovatus (aka bunny tail grass) in one small area on the south side of the house about four years ago.  I've been delighted with the flowers, which live up to their common name.  I've used them in many vases, including dry arrangements where they last for years.  They moved around a bit during the following years but this year they've spread more widely.

They look lovely in the area shown above but they've crept eastward into my south-side succulent bed this year.  I pull them out as I find them but I'm guessing that trend may continue.

Finally, there's Polygala myrtifolia (aka sweet pea bush).  It's a tough plant and I've used it in both my front and back gardens.  It self-seeded in bit in both areas in prior years but it's gone to town this year.

Its seedlings start out small but quickly form clumps.  I'd entirely missed these little clumps until I started taking photos this week.  They'd taken over a narrow area between an ornamental grass (Festuca californica) and a shrub (Pittosporum tobira 'Variegata').

These photos show clumps of Polygala myrtifolia in the back (left) and front (right) gardens.  Most or all of those in these photos seeded themselves there over the past year.  (A few pink evening primrose, Oenothera speciosa, have snuck into the area shown on the right.)

Do you have any rampant self-seeders?  If so, do you treat them as gifts or nuisances?

For more wildflowers, including weedy types, visit Cathy at Words and Herbs.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party