Worst Pacific Northwest Wildflowers Most Gardeners Call Weeds

The Pacific Northwest has some really beautiful wildflowers that poke up their heads unexpectedly and you find them on your hikes and walks in the area. If you have a garden though, there are several wildflowers that you end up digging out repeatedly. No matter what you do, you're likely to find these wildflowers returning again and again to your gardens, no matter what you do, especially if you have pets. See my slideshow on Noxious Pacific Northwest Wildflowers for pictures of many of these.

Worst Pacific Northwest Wildflower: Creeping Buttercup, ranunculus repens

Creeping buttercup has dainty yellow flowers and lush leaves that can fool the newcomer to the Pacific Northwest or to gardening that it is a pleasant addition. The bad part about creeping buttercup is that the roots are fragile, but spread underneath the ground and take over your garden. In the heavily clayed soil, the roots are very hard to remove completely.

Worst Pacific Northwest Wildflower: Bindweed or Wild Morning Glory

Bindweed has pointy heart shaped leaves and spread like wildfire through your garden. Once in your garden, you will be weeding it out forever. You need to pull them as soon as you can get your fingers around the stem, any longer and it will be twelve feet up a trellis or entirely strangling your plants. The only time I've seen morning glory bloom in the northwest is in huge banks covering blackberry. I once planted morning glory in a pot, I learned the hard way.

Worst Pacific Northwest Wildflower: Scotchbroom, cytisus scoparius

Scotchbroom looks and acts like a native but is an introduced species. The flowers grow from every node and drop peapod seeds that spread the plants wildly. Many are allergic to the pollen. They are very hard to remove. Surprisingly enough the nurseries still sell it.

Worst Pacific Northwest Wildflower: Blackberry 'himalaya', rubus procerus

Blackberry is an introduced species that now grows rampantly around the Pacific Northwest. The locals love gathering the fruit, so do the birds. That's all that is needed. Don't allow a cane near your garden. They arch up and over and set new roots from where the end touches. The roots grow deep and send runners. The stems are covered with thorns. Most use brush begone or a bulldozer to remove it.

Worst Pacific Northwest Wildflower: Stickyweed or Cleaver or Goose Grass, galium aparine (no picture in slideshow)

This weed has almost no roots, but the leaves have little hooks and they grow seed pods with burrs. Even if you remove this weed from your garden, your pets, or neighbors pets or wildlife will bring the seeds into your yard if the birds don't leave them in their droppings. The leaves of the plant hook onto other plants and engulf them. Wear gloves to remove.

Worst Pacific Northwest Wildflower: Stinging Nettle, urtica dioica (no picture in slideshow)

These are outlawed in gardens except for a few people that like to grow them for the supposed cure for arthritis and to make tea. One touch and your skin burns all day.

Some others I was sorry to run into include Creeping Jenny, Fireweed and Crab grass

[1]Ronald J. Taylor, Northwest Weeds, Mountain Press Publishing, 1990

[2]Sunset Western Garden Book, Sunset Publishing Corp. 1996