I HAVE KILLED MANY PLANTS in my gardening profession, most of them unintentional and lots of of them regrettable. So why can’t I kill Houttuynia cordata, the so-called chameleon plant, regardless of years and years of making an attempt?

I purchased the plant greater than a decade in the past, for the showiness of its (then) variegated purple, inexperienced and yellow foliage and its touted use as a groundcover in moist shade (together with plunged proper in a pot in water, apparently). Sure that I had acquired a treasure, I used to be terribly upset when it didn’t return from underground after its first winter with me. Useless, I reported in my newspaper backyard column on the time. Gone.

It was one other 12 months earlier than the chameleon turned on me once more, and resurfaced. Its resurrection was trigger for celebration. Not lifeless, not gone!

I suppose you recognize the remainder of the story if you happen to’ve ever grown an invasive: It behaved for a second or two, charming me completely as if my newest gem, then proceeded to get thuggish (and lose its variegation, reverting to the stronger-willed inexperienced model).

Oh, no, I mentioned, not in your life, because it overran pulmonarias and Hylomecon, goldenseal and trilliums at a gallop. Oh, no you don’t. Out got here the fork and shovel, and after the seeming bulk was uprooted and despatched to the trash, out got here the sheets of heavy black plastic, encumbered with stones all summer time lengthy, as I attempted to bake the rest to demise (referred to as tarping; with clear plastic, it might be referred to as solarizing).

By springtime: not gone, and a 12 months later (by then two years beneath black plastic), nonetheless not gone. 4 years of this remedy has completed nothing however encourage it to journey farther and farther sideways underground.

Even when I wished to make use of the herbicide glyphosate to cease it, I couldn’t on this scenario: The Houttuynia was rising beneath an enormous magnolia with fleshy floor roots, which might have taken up the chemical, too.

I’m repeatedly forking out every little thing beneath there now, bagging and trashing it for concern of spreading snippets of the chameleon’s roots, and even tried turning the realm to garden. Mowing for a decade or so will most likely kill no matter re-sprouts, proper? Or not. I went again to plastic as of 2015, and dig it twice a 12 months moreover, however …

And so I ask you once more: Why gained’t this plant die? (Oh, and any botched homicide makes an attempt to admit?)