will creeping jenny kill other plants

Will Creeping Jenny Kill Other Plants? How to Manage this Aggressive Grower

Creeping jenny, with its bright green leaves and cheerful yellow flowers, is a popular ground cover plant. However, its aggressive spreading nature also earns it a reputation as a thug that takes over gardens. So will creeping jenny kill other plants if left unchecked?

The short answer is yes, creeping jenny can hurt or kill adjacent plants. You can enjoy this plant without it taking over your whole garden, though, if you take good care of it. This article will talk about the annoying things about creeping jenny and how to properly control it.

Overview of Creeping Jenny

Creeping jenny (Lysimachia nummularia), which is also known as moneywort, is a low-growing perennial ground cover. Fork-shaped stems that root where they touch soil help it spread. Because the leaves are round and coin-shaped, pennywort is also known by this name.

The creeping jenny is native to Europe and does best in wet, partially shaded areas. It grows into a dense carpet of leaves in good conditions and has small yellow flowers in the summer. People like the creeping jenny because it looks good and is hardy, but the way it spreads quickly is a problem.

How Creeping Jenny Can Harm Other Plants

If you don’t do anything, creeping jenny can kill or hurt plants nearby in your garden. Here are the main ways it accomplishes this:

Crowding Out – Creeping jenny’s dense mats overtake an area quickly, shading and starving other plants via monopolizing sunlight, nutrients, moisture and space.

Strangling – The plant’s stems put down roots wherever they touch soil. They sometimes grow over and around other plant stems, potentially girdling and strangling them.

Allelopathy – Some evidence suggests creeping jenny may release biochemicals that inhibit other plants’ growth. However, more research is needed to definitively prove allelopathic effects.

Pests/Disease – Thick mats of creeping jenny increase humidity and can harbor fungal diseases, slugs, and other pests that may spread to other plants.

So through direct competition and indirectly through attracting pests and diseases, creeping jenny can definitely contribute to the demise of less vigorous nearby plants.

How to Manage Creeping Jenny in Mixed Plantings

While creeping jenny demands close management, its attractiveness needn’t come at the expense of your other garden plants. Here are some tips to grow it responsibly:

• Carefully site creeping jenny away from rare or fragile plants that can’t compete well. Give it ample space.

• Use physical barriers like metal edging or thick plastic to contain creeping jenny and prevent it from invading planting beds.

• Avoid overly fertile soil, which turbocharges creeping jenny’s spread. Light, sandy or gravelly soil helps slow it down.

• Monitor the edges and promptly remove rogue shoots encroaching on less vigorous neighbors.

• Allow plants like ivy, vinca, or liriope that can hold their own to grow near creeping jenny as competition.

• Prune back the most aggressive sections in spring and fall to curb expansion and prevent encroachment.

• Consider judicious spot applications of herbicide on particularly robust patches, taking care not to harm other plants.

Vigilance and persistence are critical to allow creeping jenny without it running rampant through your garden. But the effort pays off in enjoying its durability and beauty without sacrificing diversity.

Better-Behaved Alternatives to Creeping Jenny

For gardeners not inclined to constantly battle creeping jenny, there are several better-behaved alternatives that offer comparable appeal:

• Sweet woodruff has fragrant white spring flowers and thrives in shade like creeping jenny but is slower to spread.

• Creeping phlox, also called moss phlox or moss pink, is a native ground cover with pretty spring blooms that spreads gently.

• Irish moss forms a soft, mossy carpet of greenery or chartreuse that tolerates foot traffic once established.

• Bugleweed (Ajuga) offers colorful spikes of blue flowers on a low mat of foliage, spreading less aggressively than creeping jenny.

• Mazus reptans stays compact with soft mats of small leaves topped with cheerful blue and white blooms.

• Lobelia siphilitica makes a well-behaved ground cover with vivid blue late-summer flower spikes.

These and other choices provide creeping jenny’s benefits without its ruthless expansion. Shop around to find an appealing alternative if you don’t want to fight constant containment battles.

Key Takeaways About Growing Creeping Jenny

Here are the key points to remember if you plan to grow creeping jenny:

• Site it carefully and give it adequate space to avoid overtaking precious specimens. Use barriers to confine it.

• Prune frequently – at least twice yearly – to curb its spread. Be prepared to dig out and remove encroaching stems.

• Allow competitors like ivy or vinca minor to grow nearby to help keep it in check naturally.

• Amend soil with sand or gravel to lighten texture, promoting drainage and discouraging lush growth.

• Monitor closely for new shoots around edges. Stop expansion promptly before creeping jenny invades planting beds.

• Consider judicious spot applications of herbicide on particularly robust patches if manual removal proves insufficient.

While it demands attentive management, creeping jenny’s appeal can enhance your landscape without turning it into a creeping jenny monoculture. Just be prepared to put in the effort to keep it controlled.