Hello. We have a large flower bed that has been taken over by ground elder. We took a lot of it out last year, stems, leaves and roots, but it has come back. My husband wants to start digging up all of the flowers (lilies, irises, forget me nots, peonies) and keep them in pots while we work on removing the ground elder. This may take a few months. I have a few questions about this process.
1. Is this the best way to deal with ground elder?
2. Will digging flowers up before they bloom this year harm them? Will they flower this year if we dig them up now? Will they come back next year? How long would they be OK in pots?
3. We also have 3 very old, large rhododendrons in the same flower bed. How can we best kill the ground elder around them? Do we need to try to dig them up?
4. Is it possible to actually get all of the ground elder out?
Any other advice you have about dealing with ground elder is appreciated.
Thank you,
Lesley Mughazy