Lesser celandine

[Anonymous]

Purchased a home in 2024 — the home previously had a large garden full of native varieties but then was a rental for a few years before being sold. So we have the bones of a great garden but a lot of deferred maintenance to bring it back to life — some drainage issues in one bed and a lot of weeds that took hold, pruning, etc. Last spring we realized the yard had a serious lesser celandine problem so we paid $7k for a full weeding along with some other landscaping services. Now this year all the lesser celandine is back and spread over double the area it was last year.

My husband and I have tried digging it out the last two weekends but I think it would take us weeks full time to get to all of it. Do I pay our yard crew another 5-7k to do this all again? Will I have to do that again next year? Forever? Really feeling defeated by this terrible weed!

[Anonymous]

I don't know, but last year was the first year ever that this cropped up in the yard I've been gardening on for two decades. I left it at first since it was pretty but ultimately looked it up and decided to pull it. Looks like it's back.

I've had other weeds come through where after a couple years diligence I could loosen up. I don't know if this one is similar.

[Anonymous]

Use spray weed killer

[Anonymous]

I looked to see what you meant. It says digging spreads tubers.

Leave it or spray it. Don't dig.

[Anonymous]

It has bulbs, so unless you get those out it just spreads. Our state university extension master gardener program encourages glyphosate for this.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry OP. This weed is taking over our entire area. I hate it so much. It's the one thing you can use round-up on and not feel guilty. Just keep kids and dogs away from the lawn for a few days after. My neighbor has let their entire property be taken over so we had to install a 4 foot deep bamboo weed barrier but still have to dig out the tubers (digging one-by-one is effective but exhausting) and then we spray each year to keep it under control. Now is the time to do it, before it goes dormant again. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

It’s a terrible invasive weed. My garden is over run, and I need to treat it with herbicide but I’ve been delaying. Maybe I’ll do it next spring - it’s too late now for this year, as it is starting to go dormant.

Weeding it can actually spread it - to remove it manually you need to take the soil with it, and it’s enormously labor intensive.

You paid $7,000 for weeding? My goodness. I should change professions (I’m a teacher).

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the replies. We did cave and use a bunch of glyphosate and then just covered with mulch. The battle is ongoing, I’ll see what comes back next year. The only alternative seemed like ripping out half our yard altogether. And no the 7k was not just weeding, it included work to address drainage issues, landscaping, pruning/removing/relocating plants (we have over 65 azaleas alone), etc. It was actually the lowest of 3 quotes we got and they did an excellent job and there’s no way my husband and I could have done all the work.

[Anonymous]

I am also being tortured by this weed. It popped up this year and I see that half of what I thought was native violets is actually lesser celandine starting out in new areas.

I have been on a rampage to eliminate goutweed only to find lesser celandine popping up everywhere the ground has been disturbed. I am so demoralized by this garden I am about ready to give up.

[Anonymous]

PSU has a wealth of great resources on how to manage/remove invasive plants. Their page on lesser celandine is here: https://extension.psu.edu/don-t-be-deceived-by-this-beguiling-springtime-plant

The bottom line is that digging is not effective. Any tiny piece of the plant or its tubers left behind will regrow. The ONLY RELIABLE way to treat lesser celandine is to spray with glyphosate while it is in flower (ideally before your natives emerge) in early spring. You've missed the window this year - the best thing to do now is nothing and wait for next year.

[Anonymous]

Echoing others' who have noted the difficulty controlling. Removing by hand needs to be meticulous. One suggestion I read was to dig deep down like 6 or 7 inches and take up all the dirt and celandine, rolling it up as you go like sod. That way, the little bulbs fall on existing ground that you're going to be digging up.

It's important to also NOT COMPOST it but secure it in a black plastic trash bag and discard in your regular garbage. Otherwise, it will re-sprout and continue to spread.

Timing glyphosate application is important, too. Early spring before the plants are at 50% bloom. Repeating the next year or so may be required; but keep hitting it at the right time every year to control it.

DO NOT MOW it - that merely spreads it around. Animals and people walking through it help spread it. We have it in a public alleyway behind our property and it is quickly advancing.

To try to keep it from infiltrating our property, I've planted some golden ragwort. It's native, fairly fast and dense early spring grower. It's also very pretty in bloom en masse as it spreads. I couldn't find glyphosate in regular stores; so I ordered some online. It didn't arrive (and I didn't try to find it) early enough for this season; but I am definitely going to try applying it next spring on the plants I find in the alleyway directly behind our property and on the corners of the adjacent properties where it has become a thick mat.

Native (purple/blue) violets are also "early springers" and, at least in my garden beds, aggressive and thick mat-forming. I'm also trying to transplant a few of those out to the alley to see if they will compete. Unfortunately, they look just like the celandine until they bloom; but once they do bloom, I'll at least know to try not to spray them and it will give me a visual on their effectiveness as the yellow celandine blooms. Some online commentaries suggest they won't succeed, but I think any early spring native with a dense root system is worth a try.

I also posted a public service announcement to our neighborhood listserv. Not everyone is on it and not everyone will care; but increasing awareness and getting more people involved in fighting the lesser celandine battles can only help. Same thing with asian spotted lanternflies....

OP, thank you for being a responsible steward and for being concerned. Good luck! Any bit of success is helpful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PSU has a wealth of great resources on how to manage/remove invasive plants. Their page on lesser celandine is here: https://extension.psu.edu/don-t-be-deceived-by-this-beguiling-springtime-plant

The bottom line is that digging is not effective. Any tiny piece of the plant or its tubers left behind will regrow. The ONLY RELIABLE way to treat lesser celandine is to spray with glyphosate while it is in flower (ideally before your natives emerge) in early spring. You've missed the window this year - the best thing to do now is nothing and wait for next year.

Will spraying it now help at all?

Also, how are you supposed to mow the lawn with this stuff around?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PSU has a wealth of great resources on how to manage/remove invasive plants. Their page on lesser celandine is here: https://extension.psu.edu/don-t-be-deceived-by-this-beguiling-springtime-plant

The bottom line is that digging is not effective. Any tiny piece of the plant or its tubers left behind will regrow. The ONLY RELIABLE way to treat lesser celandine is to spray with glyphosate while it is in flower (ideally before your natives emerge) in early spring. You've missed the window this year - the best thing to do now is nothing and wait for next year.

Great, in the meantime how am I supposed to mow the lawn?