Help - advice on digging out tubers and getting rid of Peruvian lilies

[LilyLillyO]

Peruvian lillies have invaded and spreading unbelievably. I want to get rid of them and have discovered from google and my own digging that they spread by tubers which are fairly deep and you have to dig out.

I read one thread where someone said they had tried digging and it had made it worse as it spread bits of tubers around.

Any advice - in particular there are a shoots coming up very very close (by which I mean intertwined/right next to so you can barely put a credit card between them) to a beautiful hydrangea. Last year it was struggling but I didn't realise why - now I know it is surrounded by lilly tubers. I've got rid of some of them round the base but am at a loss to know how to get out the ones almost intertwined.

They are horrible things - the stalks break off very easily but link very deeply to the tubers - so it is very hard to find the tuber without digging down and digging out a massive clump of them and talking all the earth with it. Even if it's damp and you use your hand to try to dig down around the stalk they tend to break off.

Any help with:

• recommended digging tools for this job. A normal fork is too big. A trowel is too small because it is too short and needs more leverage - as in put your foot/body weight on it
• any advice about weed killers especially given proximity to the hydrangea - I read that it needs industrial glycosophate to make a dent in it - but I don't want to kill the hydrangea. can you apply it to just the leaves? will that kill the root?

• how to get rid of the ones mixed up with the hydrangea right at the base.

• any other ideas? are there professional people who could do this? what do they do? I read something about weed blocking membrane but that won't solve the problem round the hydrangea roots/base.

They're awful to get rid of! I found digging put whatever I could, then chopping back every bit of new growth every time it popped up worked eventually.
Roundup gel used to be the weedkiller for that type of job, but it really is bad for you and the environment.

@Saz12 thanks - what tool did you use for digging?

Mine weren't near a shrub I particularly wanted, so just a small spade (a "ladies border spade" as they used to be called).

ok thanks. I thought you were supposed to dig out with a fork not a spade?

that said google lead me to root slayer spades which I've never used but look like wedge shaped knives! A cross between a spade and a knife. are these any good?

any other ideas? I am in need!

Following with interest... I have lots in our garden & have recently realised that those tubers are spreading & taking over larger areas. Serious action needed now, I'm not averse to poisons/weedsprays if that will get a quicker result either

I don't know if this will be helpful but I'm trying to get rid of crocosmia growing round a rosebush. I cut off the leafy top growth and put down cardboard around the stem of the rose, then covered it with bark chippings and gave it a good soaking. Obviously the cardboard has degraded but the far fewer crocosmia that are still coming up are easier to spot and pull up while they're small. I hope this is weakening the remaining tubers.

If you got to the supermarket, get the card they use between the pallets of bottled and canned drinks. It's just big blank rectangles of card. Then you don't have to worry about removing tape or chemicals in any printing.

Serious action needed now, I'm not averse to poisons/weedsprays if that will get a quicker result either

@QueenBeeBoy - definitely try to deal with it before they flower as it gets worse.

@lcakethereforeIam I'm not sure that this works for these kind of hardy things. It may weaken them or mean you don't get growth for a year but the tubers are still there. I've dug out a bunch - once you start digging you realise the scale of the problem - there are tons of these horrible tuber things. You get one bit and think that's the one but dig a bit deeper and find a mass more.

My plan after much googling is as follows
-digging as much out as and when I have time and energy - bit at a time
-basic weed killer on the plants I can see.
-pull up all the top shoots that I haven't managed to dig before they flower (the disadvantage of this is that you lose the location marker of where the tubers are)
-buy some glyscophosphate and spray the remainder later on.
-possibly buy some plastic membrane (As per the cardboard) but not sure this will kill rather than delay.

these aren't even officially classed as invasive. I shudder to think what real invasive stuff is like to deal with.

It's annoying as well because they are quite pretty flowers but I just don't want them where they are invading.