Vines That Kill Flowers – How To Kill Vines In Flower Beds

Vines have many attributes in the garden. They add dimension, mask unsightly areas, create privacy, and often produce beautiful blooms. Sometimes, however, vines are unwelcoming in the landscape. Vines are voracious growers, so a vine weed in the flower bed isn’t always a great thing, often these vines kill flowers. Read on to learn how to kill vines in flower beds.

Vines That Kill Flowers

Vines like trumpet and wisteria are often added to the landscape for their showy blooms. Yes, they look stunning clambering along a fence, but beneath their beauty lies a stealth plan to overtake and rule the garden. Wisteria’s powerful, sweet-smelling tentacles are an example of flower killing vines. Trumpet vine has a lust to grow, grow, and grow, making it just as bad.

Other vines that may kill flowers are more of a vine weed in flower beds. Morning glory and English ivy may rear their heads unwanted. Once they’ve arrived in the flower bed, they are difficult to eradicate. Controlling vine weeds like these is a must if you’re to have any annual and perennial blooms left to admire. More vines that kill flowers include:

• Japanese honeysuckle
• Kudzu
• Mile-a-Minute vine (devil’s tear thumb)
• Oriental bittersweet
• Porcelain berry
• Vinca
• Virginia creeper
• Wintercreeper (creeping euonymous) 

How to Kill Vines in Flower Beds

Ideally, begin controlling vining weeds before they get too big and out of hand. That said, some vines grow so rapidly that they may cover and kill flowers in less tended areas.

The first step to control is to cut the vine back to an inch or two (2.5-5 cm.) from the ground. Then apply an herbicide according to the manufacturer’s instructions to the cut edges immediately after pruning. The herbicide can be sprayed on or if other plants are nearby, painted on using a paintbrush.

If the vine is small, skip the pruning and apply the herbicide either by spraying or painting onto the foliage. If plants are nearby, you can also cover them with a box to protect them from any overspray.

A vine weed in the flower bed can also be dug out but often vines have extensive root systems, making them difficult to eradicate entirely this way. If the vine continues to grow back, cut it down as far as possible to the ground so it can’t photosynthesize.

To be extra sure you are controlling vine weeds, cover the area with two to three layers of cardboard or newspaper topped off with 2 to 4 inches (5-10 cm.) of mulch. This should starve the plants need for sunlight and kill vine weeds in flower beds.