Rip Em Out - Plants You Can Live Without

Generally, I like to give every butterfly plant a try, an opportunity, to see how it performs in my suburban yard.
Many don't do very well and won't make the cut for next year's trials. But some plants are so aggressive, that after a year or two that it becomes a battle to keep them in place. In the end, it's either me or them.

Now admittedly in a more hostile environment, like a state park, these plants might be totally at home and well-behaved. But in a well fed, watered and sunbathed recreation spot, as in my yard, these plants turn into greedy monsters.

Here's my list of out of control, invasive and intrusive butterfly plants which I have had to rip out of my garden.

1. Common Milkweed - Asclepias syriaca.
2. Dogbane - Apocynum cannabinum
3. Mint - my only exception is Slender Mountain Mint
4. Soapwort - Saponaria officinalis
5. Sunflower - Helianthus occidentalis
6. Wild Ageratum - Conoclinium coelestinum
7. Passion Vine - Passiflora

Pipevine is another invasive, but because I want to encourage the Pipevine butterfly I keep it around and weekly pull out its side shoots.

The moral of the story is - if you want to keep your gardening chores to a minimum, keep the above rowdies out of your garden. You can always visit them in a state park.