Will this plant take over my garden?

This is a common question I get. People want to know if it is "safe" to plant in the ground or will the plant become a nuisance. There are many different ways plants spread: seeds, stolons, and rhizomes. Knowing how a plant spreads will help prevent the plant from becoming a nuisance.

• Mint is spread via rhizomes.

• Strawberries are spread via stolons.

Yarrow spreads via rhizomes and self-seeding.

• Coneflowers spread via seeds and the expansion of their root clumps.

• Lambs ears spread via stolons and self-seed.

• Milkweed spreads via rhizomes and will self-seed.

• Shasta Daisies spread there multiplying through rhizomes and they can self-seed.

• Catnip spread via self-seeding.

• Bee Balm spreads through self-seeding, and rhizomes.

How can you prevent the spread of these plants?

1. Picking off spent flowers.

2. Picking off milkweed seed pods.

3. Digging up rhizomes which form clumps of plants.

4. Cutting off stolons.

5. Don't compost spent flowers, seed pods, rhizomes, clumps of plants, or stolons.

6. Be aware of how what perennials you have spread.

7. Be very diligent in taking care of your perennials.

Source