Life must be filled up

Wild arum. There are far too many of these in the garden, as I wrote in last year’s post.

This week I have been mostly weeding wild arum or Arum maculatum, which looks like this:



Drawing by John Nash from The Native Garden

Nobody knows for sure if this is the plant Shakespeare meant but it must be a good candidate. Most people call it Lords & Ladies or Cuckoo Pint. I don't mind a few of these under trees or in wild spots but I don't want them spreading through the borders. At this time of year, when you're clearing, you see clumps of them everywhere and they are extremely hard to dig up completely, bulb and all. Not quite as bad as a bluebell in the wrong place, but close. Later in the year the leaves disappear and you forget all about them until twice as many appear the following spring.