[Music]
behold
convaleria magelus most people know this
one as
lily of the valley but there are some
other common names mary's tears
are ladies tears those are along the
same religious lines
maybelles in my second language swiss
german they're called maya
easly which would loosely translate
to may risers because of the early time
of year that they come up
i always like to call them snow whites
anyone
anyone else lily of the valley is a part
sun to shade loving perennial okay
it grows really well in woodland
environments
it also loves acidic soil if you have a
tree in your yard deciduous or
coniferous
and it's not south facing chances are
lily of the valley will be happy there
there's a few things i have to mention
right off the hop that you need to know
about lily of the valley
it's vital that you know these things
okay they're not problems if you know
them
they're problems if you don't convaleria
magealis is
so toxic every part of this plant is
poisonous okay it's full of
cardiac glycosides they're called don't
ever consume it some people even wear
gloves when they're handling it
i just wash my hands after every use
just in case
the nice thing about this toxicity is it
makes the plant
very pest resistant the pests know it's
funny how a sweet little tiny beauty
like this can be so
poisonous it's always the tiny cuties
that get you
the second thing you really ought to
know is
it's eagerness to spread it wants to
have a party okay the more the merrier
it's got these verizonous and stolen
niferous
roots and i'll get to what that means in
a bit but you need to use
some kind of physical barrier if you
don't want to leave the valley to take
over your entire
shade perennial garden that good quality
kind of rubbery fencing
you can push that really deep down into
the soil you can also cut up buckets and
use those
to stop the erasmus roots from spreading
underground
i've done that with comfrey and works
really well just has to be
long enough push it very deep into the
ground like at least six inches i'd say
to stop those rhizomes in their tracks
who's the boss of the garden
we like to think we are don't we or you
can just let them run rampant and do
their wild crazy thing
that can also be a beautiful path to
take see this particular colony here is
situated
right under an old grafted crab apple
tree and every spring they are
very eager and happy to pop up and it's
growing out onto the grass
it's even trying to take over the rest
of the bed
so it's suffocating some ladies mantle
here some hosta
iris ferns this bed has no physical
barriers so
it's just doing what it pleases here's a
visual of some
rhizomes very thick bulbous root system
so dainty above the soil so aggressive
below
these particular rhizomes are also
stoloniferous rhizomes
for simplicity's sake i'm just going to
say that a stolen
is a horizontal stem connection between
plants stolens aren't the same as
rhizomes
because they're not part of the main
stem they just link plants under the
ground
and then to spread stolens link rhizomes
to other
rhizomes get it each shoot or
pip as they're often referred to starts
with two almost
basil leaves on the ground they
eventually grow
up and become sort of part of the plant
higher up and then you have this flower
stalk
coming out of the same sheath here
the whole thing becomes quite erect out
of the ground
and will reach a height of anywhere
between six to 12 inches
look at this beautiful work of art it's
like the leaves are like protecting this
little
snow queen each flower stock can have up
to
15 little tiny super fragrant super
sickly sweet
tiny little bell-shaped flowers on it
each flower comes off its own little
stem off the main stem
it's called a racing white is the most
popular color but there are some pink
varieties i've heard
never grown them these little bumps at
the bottom of each flower
technically aren't petals because
they're still sort of
connected they're called teeples
oh my not petals not sepals
tables lily of the value can produce
red berries at the end of its season
with seeds inside that are very
poisonous as well they'll also enable
the plant to further spread
so not only are the roots a problem but
the berries can be too
however here's the interesting thing
your
colony let's call it of lily of the
valley
will not produce berries if it's all one
in the same
in other words you have to have two
separate rhizomas colonies
in order to get berries that's because
it's what's called
self-sterile so if you're
really looking to stop the spreading of
your lily of the valley
maybe also picked berries so garden
daredevils
you know you want to plant it no really
i hope all this information didn't scare
you away
because it almost seems negative spreads
a lot highly toxic
but now that you know these things you
can act accordingly
to minimize the problems and enjoy the
amazing sweet fragrance and the super
cute appearance
of this plant it also makes super cute
bouquets
it's like fresh jasmine almost
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