My worst thug is an old fashioned Alstroemeria from the days before Princess lily hybrids became fashionable. It is quite attractive but overwhelms anything in its path. It grows and spreads from what seems like millions of small tenacious tubers and seems impossible to eradicate. Sue I agree that one is a shocker. Years ago someone gave me the variegated-leaf version of it. It grows under a tree in a very dry spot and I have to say it looks quite good!! I remove the flower stems immediately after blooming as I don"t want it to self-seed as well as spread! Initially I tried to remove it but gave up after a few years. Deirdre

After 15yrs I continue to fight onion weed, oxalis & violet. In recent years I have started growing a much better behaved violet cultivar with very short runners which maintains a neat tight upright clump of glossy dark green leaves & rich dark indigo flowers. The one plant I wish I had never planted is the aniseed sage S guaranitica, which has beautiful blue flowers however takes over etire beds with a solid mass of hard bulbous roots just below the surface which out competes all other plants. That violet sounds a good one. I agree the ordinary Salvia guaranitica is a horror plant. I think many of us grew it when there were not many salvias around as we loved its blue flower. Now I grow S. guaranitca Large Form, which has the same amazing flower colour but none of the invasive ways of the original one. Deirdre

Have some of same thugs especially what I call the N Z Christmas Bell with its very light green leaves, sometimes variagated ? Alstroemeria psittacina. Have just been culling the lovely swaying flowers of the Crassula now they are tiring and today out to pull out some of the many babes sprouting up! Cheers Maureen Thanks, Maureen. See my comment about the variegated NZ Christmas bells! Yes the Crassula does have lots of babies. I pull out handfuls every so often but I am fond of it for a dry shaded spot where little else will grow. Deirdre

Can you believe in my first garden I carefully nurtured japanese anemones believing them to be fragile and delicate!! In my present garden they are a wonderful standby for shady areas under a very large elm tree. I have just found a few plants popping up which might be toad lily ( here"s hoping) or perhaps Juno irises. There are two small clumps of this mystery plant which have shot up since I pruned back some very old hydrangeas ( probably not pruned in more than 10 yrs). Can"t wait to see .Good luck with your mystery plant! I would never want to be without my windflowers, naughty as they are. Deirdre

Hi, I"m a relative newcomer to the east coast so I found this information quite useful. I"ve long wondered what some of the weeds are that I"ve got in my Sydney garden. Wandering jew - is that the variety Commelina cyanea with blue flowers? How about Amaranth? I read that it"s quite edible like spinach? And the millions of little weeds that look like chives, with a little onion-like bulb? Sorry so many questions, but as I say I"ve long wondered. Cheers, Dave Hi Dave - wandering jew is a type of Tradescantia - a large plain green leaf with a small white flower. There is another version with smaller leaves and a blue flower but the bigger one is the most virulent. Hens enjoy eating it! Amaranthus does have an edible leaf and self-seeds horrendously but I do like it as it has an amazing presence in the summer garden (see my Plant reference under Amaranthus caudatus). I get thousands of seedlings every year and pull out all but about 10 of them. Onion weed is probably the worst weed of all - yes, it looks like thin chives and has a white flower on top. It is really hard to dig the whole bulb out as there are usually lots of baby ones around it. One way to combat it is to dip scissors into Round Up weedkiller then cut the stems with the scissors. Deirdre

Oh how I relate to this topic! English Ivy is my bane, when I brought the property I had never lived with it and thought it pretty...(I came from an arid area where little grew to here is SW Vic with high rainfall and beautiful volcanic soilt hat grows anything I ask it to!)..for a while anything was good if it was green! ...until I found out English Ivy ( Ivy Hederacha) strangles everything and sends it"s little seedlings up in every pot and place in the garden....I fight on! Sounds a challenge; it can get rampageous here too but maybe not as bad as where you are. Good luck with your battle. Deirdre

I can add to all the above! Cymbalaria muralis which has been with me for more than 20 years and 2 gardens. Very pretty when it grows in cracks in brick walls but can be a nuisance when it grows in the garden. Similarly, Erigeron or Seaside daisy. Another is the little viola, Johnny Jump Up, which I actually think is very attractive but I do have to cull it in spots. Oh how I wish I could grow Japanese anemone in my sandy soil in my current garden! Had no problem in my previous garden! I agree that seaside daisy can be very enthusiastic - it self-seeds in every crack but I would never want to be without it as it grew in the garden of my childhood. Ditto the little viola. I pull out hundreds of seedlings of these each year but always leave a few. I love the way the seaside daisy softens hard brickwork. Shame about the windflowers in your sandy soil. But great to have good drainage for those plants that need it! Deirdre

Besides the majority of the weeds already commented on I have been fighting morning glory. If you don"t get every tiny bit of the root it reappears and spreads like wildfire, but it is virtually impossible to get all the roots without them snapping off. I find windflowers and bluebells trying to invade the paths but as there are shallow rooted azaleas either side of the paths I don"t feel happy about spraying so I went round for a few hours today and whipper snipped them all. They"ll be back! Morning Glory is one of the most tenacious. My mother fought it for 50 years! She beat it back but it was not defeated. Deirdre

A lovely, beautifully written article that we can all relate to! Thanks, Janna. I did not realise it was a topic many feel so passionate about! Deirdre

Crepe myrtle too - quite a struggle to kill one, it just keeps coming up. I tried neat glyphosate into holes drilled into the freshly cut stump - didn"t work. And that shrub was just a young one. I too have that problem with them. I try to pull them out at the base. It sometimes works! Deirdre

Hi Deirdre, You have just described the plants in my garden. It"s a battleground and I"m not winning.Georgina I have felt pretty overwhelmed by weeds this spring. I think it is because of all the rain in August. I am spreading a lot of cane mulch at the moment in an attempt to get on top of them. Deirdre

Ah now that strikes a chord with me Deirdre. Camphor Laurel!! Magnificent tree but boy oh boy, it has made itself much to much at home in Northern NSW. It is a yearly battle to contain the mini versions and the leaf drop drives me nuts every year. We have rid ourselves of most from our property but we are surrounded by them on other properties so it is a constant battle. Nevertheless, we take a deep breath and plant as many "local" plants as possible to crowd them out. It can be a dreadfully invasive tree. I hope you can crowd them out with the other plants you put in. Deirdre

Gardening is a form of war. Oh, those sweet temptations that are worse than trojan horses.Indigofera is pretty tenacious. It was wonderful during the drought but as soon as the rains came it went ballistic. I"m still digging it out of the lawn five years later. Yes that one is pretty determined. Good where nothing else will grow but likes to take over. Deirdre

A great article Deirdre. Thank you for the ideas in it. Thanks, Lynda! Deirdre

I don"t find Erigeron or Cymbalaria too hard to control, & do appreciate their reliability; likewise the Japanese Anemones are easy to manage. Tahitian Bridal Veil (Gibasis pellucida) on the other hand, a Tradescantia relative, beautiful in a hanging basket or pot, incredibly easy to grow & impossible to kill with neglect, becomes a total thug if a small piece takes root in any shaded bed! Many years ago I stupidly planted a lovely little bulb Crocosmia crocosmiiflora in my parents garden, which proceeded to take over the entire front yard, where it remains to this day! I also planted that Crocosmia. I got rid of most of it but some bulbs still pop up! Deirdre

Ruth 4034 Wow Deirdre, you did create a lot of conversations! Thanks for you tip for Onion Weed with the scissors dipped in Round Up. On a more positive note - I planted a climbing rose called Pinkie at my front door two years ago on large white lattice, it"s just gorgeous, I have counted up to 75 blooms on some of the "bunches". I love hearing the neighbours walking past admiring her. Can recommend this one for prolific blooming and easy care. Thank you for your Blog. Ruth Thanks, Ruth. Pinkie is a lovely rose. Yours sounds a wonderful specimen. Deirdre

Its a bit late to comment I guess, but just reading this article and the following comments enabled me to identify so many plants in my (newly acquired) garden! Or perhaps I should say weeds... I think I have them all! I notice Madeira weed wasnt mentioned though. This awful plant has no redeeming features whatsoever, and I leap on it with roundup as soon as I spy it anywhere.