Please help ID this plant.

This plant is growing in my lawn and I would like to determine if it is a weed or just a plant. It sprung up with the last month. Nonetheless I would like to get rid of it. Can anyone can provide some assistance.

 

snow drops (Galanthus)

 

Thanks Ali

Thanks for the info, I'll do a search on it to determine how to control the growth within my lawn. If you have any ideas or sites with info please let me know.

 

To each their own, but I'm fairly confident in stating that I think many people would be envious of your lawn with snowdrops. They are described as "everyone's favourite bulb" or "plants of the month" (University of Tennessee). I suppose you are probably wanting to mow the lawn, though - continued mowing will eventually kill the plants. They will not regrow this year if you mow them, but a few may sprout again next year. Mow them again.

 

Don't know what to do?

Daniel, now that I know about the plant I'm stuck on what to do. I want to grow them but I also want to have a nice lawn. I think that I"ll transplant a few bulbs and try to grow them in another pasrt of the lawn.

 

I think the decision has been made for you as those
Snow Drops are bulbs and to eradicate them from
your lawn will be more trouble and costly perhaps
than you may want to deal with. A contact spray
with a surfactant (sticker) to adhere to that thick
super glossy cuticle is going to be a real challenge.
Then you will need a spray that will be translocated
down into that bulb also in order to kill it.

I have a suggestion and that is leave them alone
as those bulbs will be there longer than you will
want to try to eradicate them. In a month or two
the tops of the plants will probably brown out and
die on their own and with a good lawn mowing it
will seem like they were never there until next
Spring if they are anything like our Welsh Onions
- Allium triquetrum. I will gladly trade you plant
for plant any day!

Jim

 

Just to clarify: I believe that mr. shep is talking in the theoretical about how to kill the bulbs in one season with "minimum" effort, if one thought wasting money and polluting their lawn was a good idea.

To reiterate: There's no need to spray at all. All this will take is a little patience and time. Mow them down each spring and eventually the bulbs will die because their energy will have been spent producing leaves that is not returned to the bulb due to the leaves being mowed down. I personally would pursue something similar to what mr. shep suggests (leaving them and letting the grass grow until the leaves die back), but I get the feeling you'd like to have a lawn that is fairly manicured.

I think transplanting a few is a good compromise - you still get to enjoy them, while having the lawn that you want. Or, you could do a blend of both - transplant some to (or leave them in) areas where it isn't as important that the lawn be manicured from early spring to fall, and only mow in those areas after the snowdrops die back.

 

Thanks Again

Since I know have greater understanding of the plant, I also have a greater appreciation for it. I'll work out a compromise to keep it growing in some areas and mow in others. Thanks again for your responses.

 

First off I was not advocating using a herbicide as I am not convinced a turf specialist
will be able to find the right combination of chemicals to mesh in order to effectively
spray this plant. Then again the diffident part I was alluding to was in the number of
tries to get the right balance of chemicals to do the job and then the question of how
many spray applications would it take to kill the tops as well as the bulbs. In my mind
it would indeed be a waste of money, notwithstanding the fact that we may have to
do the same thing allover the next year and perhaps the following year as well. The
pollution aspect I completely agree with.

Hyacinth growers in Holland will let the bulbs leaf out but as soon as the appearance
of a blooming shoot develops the spike is pinched off in order to force the bulbs to
become larger in size hoping to become a sellable size the next year. The "energy"
will be created from the leaves and roots and placed into the bulb and the fact that
the bulb did not have to expend any energy in order to bloom. The same process
can and probably does happen with these bulbs also. Don't let the plants flower and
the bulbs can increase in size. The way to control this bulb is to not let it leaf out.
The best cultural control is to mow the plant as soon as the tops start to emerge in
the Spring. In time the bulb will eventually exhaust itself trying to leaf out for the
next season and probably the next so you are looking at roughly a three year process
just to keep this plant under control in your lawn as it is too late for this year. Then,
if this plant can reproduce itself by seed and it apparently can like our Welsh Onions
do, then you will have this plant back in your lawn in no time if you have a planting
of these bulbs anywhere near your lawn.

Sorry I intruded in this thread.

Jim

 

Jim,

I know that you weren't advocating herbicides, but I thought that someone reading the first paragraph of your initial response could read it that way ("go to store, get spray that does x, y and z").

The point that you made regarding the timing of leaf removal was an improvement over what I had said, and I don't think you intruded in the thread.

 

Hi Daniel:

I felt like I did intrude in that in all practicality the guy
only has two options, either live with the Snow Drops
or culturally try to control them. There are no real "in
betweens" if he wants to keep them out of his lawn.
I referenced the Welsh Onions for a reason as I am in
my fourth year trying to culturally eradicate them
from my own lawn.

I am "old school" in that many of our cultural practices
50 years ago were some of the best methods to control
unwanted pests. Being from an area that wrote the
proverbial "book" on Integrated Pest Management, I
have always played things to never use a pesticide unless
it was absolutely necessary.

The problem for all us is that a turf management specialist
will, no less than 95% of the time in the US, use a herbicide
spray as their quick fix remedy and few people ever say a
negative word about it. I will come right out and say that I
do not like herbicides at all for a variety of reasons. The
other issue is that even when we come up with a viable
cultural control people will still go ask their nurseryman
what kind of spray can they use on their weed in their lawns.
There is no doubt in my mind at all that this homeowner
would have been advised to use a herbicide spray for the
Snow Drops as opposed to any other possible control and
you know that is probably true as well.

Jim