A lot of heirloom lore has a lot of fact within, and probably, some of it doesn't. Let's see if any of us have had any experiences with some of them.....

The bindweed, Convolvulus sepium is said to be the only twinning plant that winds opposite to the sun's direction across the sky. I have heard that if you rewind it around something in the opposite direction, it will die. Whadda ya know?

I checked on my fine crop of this awful weed, and sure enough, it was growing the 'wrong' way. Anyone heard of this re-routing scheme before, or tried it? I can just hear it now,,, "Mom's out there rewinding the bindweed..."

What a pity I don't have any so I can't try that Maggie.

Let me send you some. teehee.

Let's experiment, Maggie, and see if it works. I have plenty too, Terry, if Maggie can't get enough sent to you!

I'll give it a go Gail, as I'll try anything to defeat that beast. But I have to admit that I will be extremely amazed if works, knowing how pernicious those deep perennial roots are - and how so many of them connect to one deep tap root. ack.

I was just reading about twining vines in Donald Wyman's Shrubs & Vines for American Gardens, first published in 1949. Wyman lists 23 vines that twine by climbing from left to right and 8 vines that twine by climbing from right to left - he didn't include bindweed (ha ha!). Wyman doesn't say anything about vines dying because they are twined in the wrong direction. He just advises gardeners to twine them in the right direction.

Don't know about killing bindweed by twining it the wrong way but try covering the weed with a plastic drinks bottle that has the bottom cut off. Leave it for a couple of weeks so it grows like mad inside then blast it with Roundup or similar, keep it inside the bottle and it is supposed to die after a coule of treatments. I've never tried it myself as like Terry I am fortunate enough not to be plagued by that particular weed.

Excellent Susan! I love those older texts too - they so often provide much more extensive coverage of a subject. But, gee, I wonder why he doesn't include bindWEED as a vine 'for Amer gardens'? So interesting to learn about the 23 that do grow from left to right. That sort of detective work is just the thing for investigating fact within the lore. I look forward to finding more for us to work on!

Your bottle-terrarium sounds a clever weapon Nicola. After digging on a poison oak plant for years, I finally hit the mother plant with treatment inside a de-bottomed bottle to contain the spray. One time, and it was gone - after all those years of digging and itching! Sometimes, the choice between one patch of earth’s condition and the gardener’s health is to be considered!

As for the re-winding experiment – I tried it on one bindweed tendril. Within 2 days, the new growth just hopped up, turned around and went on in its preferred twining way!

Score: 0 for folklore, 1 for fact

Grannies believed in making a 'rooting tea' from willow tree twigs. It is thought that the stewed and cooled willow water contained root-inducing hormones or something that incited roses and other cuttings to develop better roots, faster. I have used it many times with good results - whether it was luck or whatever, is up for consideration.

The pic is from Dr. Malcolm Manners site, of Florida Southern College's Dept of Citrus and Environmental Hort Dept. He has led a controlled lab study of various rooting products and willow tea.
Here's his page on rooting roses
and his wounding study, which indicates more discernable results is here.

There doesn't seem to be a pic of rose cuttings treated with willow-tea alone. Yet, #1 on his conclusions at the bottom of the page, indicates they did do the study with negative results. Then the last case study pic shows where willow-tea in conjunction with a commercial product was more effective than without the tea. Do we have enough to tally the score for fact over folklore on this one yet? Any one know of any other studies?