Weekly Photo Challenge:Abundance

Bermuda Buttercup (Buttercup Oxalis)
Bermuda Buttercup (Buttercup Oxalis)

The Bermuda buttercup is an invasive plant which although initially grown as an ornamental is now classed as an invasive “weed”. It is very difficult to eradicate as it propagates through underground bulbs. The Bermuda buttercup has unfortunately taken hold in our garden and along the coastal areas where we live. On a positive note it is popular with the bees plus its luminous yellow flowers make a bright and cheerful display. It certainly grows in abundance!

Bermuda buttercup showing leaves

Do you have a problem with the Bermuda buttercup in your garden?
Do you consider it a pretty weed or a pain in the butt?
Any ideas as to the best way to get rid of it please?

Are you taking part in the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge? this week’s theme is “Abundance” Please let me know and I will share your link.

My “Blogging Buddies” photographs for “Abundance”
http://enjoyingcreating.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/sharing-an-abundance-of-nature/
http://whatsbuggingmetoday.wordpress.com/2011/02/26/or-not-weekly-photo-challenge-abundance/

Will add more later 🙂

Why not take part in the “Weekly Photo Voting” and cast your vote for your favourite photo http://ryanfernandes.wordpress.com/category/weekly-photo-voting/

34 thoughts on “Weekly Photo Challenge:Abundance”

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  2. Hello Piglet,
    Thanks for this post! It’s nice to hear of someone else who knows just how awkward this weed is! My partner and I moved to Portugal last year, to a little bungalow with a garden. In October, the burmuda buttercup started coming through, and since I didn’t know it, I let it grow to find out what it was like. BIG mistake! The whole place was a sea of it and barely anything else got a look it. Even the lawn was full of it. I googled it and found an image similar to our problem entiteld ‘infestation’! Once I realised what a stranglehold it had, it was war! Since then I’ve been pulling and pullng and pulling it up, and was so hopeful that I’d managed to quash it, but here it comes again this year (rolls eyes). Still, Now I’ve got a hold on it and am keeping it in better check (determined to get every single shoot before it flowers!) it’s amazing how many other plants that we simply didn’t see last year are getting a look in.
    The next door garden is abandoned and full of convulvulous (!), so that, coupled with our other flowering plants, are allaying my guilt about depriving the bees!
    Did you decide to go easier on yours this year? Or have you found an easier way to get rid of it? I find the stems are more likely to bring the root systems with them if you let them grow a bit thicker, and then pull them when the soil’s damp from rain. Pulling them out of dry soil just snaps them off, in my experience.
    Good luck!

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    1. Hi Sally, and welcome 🙂 thank you for stopping by my blog. Good news re the Bermuda buttercup, constant pulling and weeding means most of them have now gone from my garden! But we will see 🙂 I am sad as I miss the bright colours and the bees, but this year I planted lots of lavender to attract the bees 🙂 I can of course use the lavendar for other things once it’s dried 🙂

      I will pop by your blog later, but just off out to restart my Portuguese lessons 🙂 Speak soon

      Carole aka PiP

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  4. Well, Horta is a place where you can grow vegetables, herbs or any other eatable Crop, either for Humans or for livestock…normaly it has also some fruit trees, like orange tree, lemons, apples…or any other typical tree here. Horta in Portugal has allways a mix of orchard with food/vegetable garden…and even flower Garden:D we Portuguese don´t have it actualy separate sometimes…and Horta is a bit of every one of them. Allotment, maybe, but I don´t know it very well…
    (Oh and about the bees…that´s true, they are desapearing and no one knows realy why, maybe because climate change…we have now much warmer winter and dry Summer….you can read it here(Pt): http://www.publico.pt/Ci%C3%AAncias/as-abelhas-estao-a-desaparecer-do-pais-e-ninguem-sabe-porque_1452376

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    1. Hi Jaime,
      Horta is the same as an allotment. I half thought it was but you have just confirmed. Thanks 🙂
      This article is really worrying – last year I was hand pollinating my courgette flowers as there was such a scarcity of bees. This year I am trying to plant lots of shrubs that attract bees…I have just planted several lavender bushes…it’s a balance between bees and thirsty plants.

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  5. Hi Jaime…
    It is certainly a very strong weed and the only benefit I can see is that the bees seem to love it. I was really concerned when we first moved here as there was a distinct lack of bees…I keep digging these weeds up…but they always return 😦 They are certainly tenacious!
    Just checking is Horta “vegetable garden”? or is this more like an allotment?

    Kind regards
    Pip

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  6. Hi Piglet, We have lots of them in my garden and Horta, I think no one in Portugal sees it as a ornamental plant anymore….this is a weed, and a strong one:) i think it was introduced here in the XIX century here because it was preaty but now is a nasty ground cover! Good Luck with your garden though:D

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    1. I visited the links here and at my blog and I agree with you.
      I think there’s so many varieties in the wood sorrel family that we probably do share one or a few. lol

      I’ve enjoyed sharing our plant postings. I’m looking forward to sharing more as time goes on.
      This truly is one of the fun parts of blogging. Yep, that’s the beauty of it. 🙂
      E.C.
      🙂

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  9. Hi, Miss Piglet. I am a gardener and pretty attentive to what is growing around me, but I am not familiar with this plant. Maybe I’m not paying enough attention! I live in North Florida, USA. There is one plant here that I dislike, although it is a native plant, called Florida betony, often referred to as rattlesnake weed, because the tubers from which it grows look like the rattle on a rattlesnake. It produces tiny, lovely lavender blooms in the spring. I don’t think anything gets rid of it. Good luck with your buttercup.

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  10. You’ve inspired me to post a photo and make a 2nd post today.
    I was so amazed to see your photo that looks just like a wild flower that grows around here. I went through my photos and found one I took a couple years ago. It even has a bee on it like yours. Cool! I think it’s so nifty we share the same wild flower and if I’m not mistaken the same type of bee. I hope you’ll come see my wood-buttercup & bee photo.
    I don’t know how to control this species of weed. I never thought about it.
    The other posters may be of help in getting rid of it. I wish you luck with it.
    Personally, I think they’re charming. I agree the bees do love them.
    😉

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      1. Thanks so much Pip for posting the second photo of your Bermuda buttercup.
        You’re right, our weeds aren’t exactly the same weeds.
        I ran a search on them and found out that my plant is the creeping wood sorrel and your’s looks like the yellow wood sorrel and they’re from the same family.
        I edited in the correct info in my post on the plants.
        I posted a link on my post to a website that talks about control of it.
        I apologize for any confusion I caused.
        E.C.

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  11. We have invasive vines at our beach house. I’ve read the best way to get rid of them is to cut them back as much as possible, saturate the cut ends with a strong weed killer (Roundup here in the States) and then put a touch of paint on the cut ends. We’re hoping to have the time to try it this Spring/Summer.

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    1. Hi Seashell,
      I’ve become soft in my old age and writing this post I’ve had an epiphany; it’s made me stop in my tracks and think about the bees and the possible devastating consequences of the use of weedkiller in my garden.
      😦 I was reading somewhere about the bee population decreasing…
      I wonder what we could do to eradicate weeds with natural rememdies…however, would I also be depriving the bees. Ho hum…stuck between a rock and a hard place 🙂
      PiP

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  12. There are catmints instead of Bermuda Buttercup in my garden.
    The catmints also are an invasive plant and attracts many bees.
    I abandoned them and didn’t mind them. 🙂

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    2. Hi cocomino…I will have to Google catmint…name sounds familiar.
      I am beginning to think I will control them in my garden but not get rid of them altogether as I’ve been planting flowers to attract bees! Ho hum 🙂

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  17. It’s a pretty little flower, shame it’s so invasive; but the bees obviously love them, so they do have their uses!
    Don’t know how you can get rid of them though – have you asked your local garden center for some advice?
    I love Rose’s last comment – very quick witted there Rose!!

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  18. Hi PiP, can’t help you on how to get rid of it but if it’s anything like Creeping Charlie it’s a never ending battle.

    I roto-tilled and resodded my backyard and the Creeping Charlie still came back because the roots were so deep. After that, I just kept digging and pulling them up whenever I had a chance to stop it from spreading further.

    Good luck trying to find a solution. 🙂

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      1. Hi PiP, it’s a low growing ground cover with purple flowers which sends out tons of sucker roots and it’s near impossible to dig them all up.

        The tiniest bit of root left behind will start a new plant growing.

        They know no boundaries and took refuge in my backyard and where there was an abundance of them.

        Couldn’t resist. 😉

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