Cow parsley identification Post Reply

[mummybear]

Hi there is anyone able to identify the following please? Think it may be cow parsley but not sure. Also how do you eradicate it? Thanks!!!!

[sleep5candle]

Looks like elderflower. Definitely not cow parsley.

[Jonquil]

It's ground elder - which can be hard to get rid of and chokes all other plants. It needs to be dug up and all the white roots removed - or I guess you could use a weedkiller.

[sleep5candle]

Its not ground elder. I was plagued by that at my old house- incredibly hard to get rid of, and this isn't it- doesnt have white flowers for starters!

[Flora]

Hi
Would have been easier to identify seeing it before you cut it - but, it does look like ground elder which flowers at this time of year
does it have white roots, lots of them, close to the surface as well as deeper in the soil?
and before it flowered it had a dense mat of leaves close to the ground?
if so - ground elder, (aegopodium podagraria) No relation to the elder tree as it happens
and a right so and so to get rid of. Various options
but if you want full advice, including site visit and child friendly remedies, sutited to eith er DIY or someone doing it for you removal, I would have to charge (my livlihood!) have a look at http://plewsgardendesign.co.uk/service/ ... ice-visit/
photo is ground elder in full flower

[DomesticJailBreaker]

The leaves in your photo look much more like cow parsley than the ground elder leaves in Flora's very helpful pic. But it's hard to tell without looking at them in the flesh, and it's a bit late into summer for cow parsley which flowers in May-ish - I would get out there with a sturdy fork and dig up a plant; if you find the long white insidious roots which others have described, it is almost certainly ground elder which is a bigger problem than just digging up the odd isolated cow parsley plant and you may decide to get an expert in to deal with it - fingers crossed that it is cow parsley not the dreaded ground elder! Added benefit if it is cow parsley - florists SELL the flower stems for quite a lot of money - so bung 'em in a flower arrangement rather than just chucking them out!