Calgary yards, gardens infested with noxious creeping bellflower weed

These pretty petals can be pretty annoying.

Have you ever heard of creeping bellflower? It’s a noxious weed that’s infesting gardens and yards across Calgary.

On some Calgary gardening social media pages, you can see a ton of posts complaining about the plant.

Kath Smyth with the Calgary Horticultural Society says it’s virtually impossible to eliminate the weed.

“It is one of those really pretty blue bell-shaped flowers, it is very interesting,” Smyth said. “And I know a lot of people who cultivate it in their backyard or in their back alley. It does a great job of strangling out other weeds. But once it takes over, it could become your lawn — it could become your entire garden — because that’s how they grow.”

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Smyth adds warmer spring weather and this year’s particularly rainy spring might be the reason we’re seeing more of the creeping bellflower. She says to control it’s growth, your green thumb needs to be vigilant.

“Even if you don’t get the roots up — which I don’t recommend — pull the leaves off, deprive it of light, and gradually it will just peter out because it’s not welcome there. It won’t try to grow baby leaves everywhere.”

If you are pulling creeping bellflower out of your yard, the City of Calgary says don’t put it in your compost. Instead, bag the weeds and put it in your black cart.

Smyth says if you are trying to get rid of the noxious plant, good luck.

“(I’ve spent) endless hours pulling creeping bellflower and getting it off the top and dealing with it that way,” Smyth said. “It is my biggest bugbear in gardening.”