HEADS UP MINNESOTA: You Need to Get Rid of the Purple Flowers in Your Yard Now

Over the past week or two my husband and I have noticed these pretty little purple flowers in people's yards. They weren't in flower pots or anything, just in random spots in the yard, so they looked like wildflowers. We thought it was so cool and my husband even said he wished we had some in our yard.

BUT WAIT!

Little did we know, that if you have these flowers in your yard in Minnesota, that's actually a bad thing.

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I was on Facebook a few days after we first spotted these flowers and I saw a picture of them. I thought, awesome, I can figure out what these are! And then I got to reading and realized that they actually aren't good at all.

Invasive Purple Flower in Minnesota Yards

Turns out, this cute little flower is invasive and needs to be removed if it's in your yard. And now is the perfect time of year to do that. These flowers are called Siberian Squill.

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The Facebook post I learned all this from originally is called Wild Ones Twin Cities, Minnesota and they sourced their information from Minnesota Wildflowers.

Minnesota Wildflowers writes that these flowers are "a classic case of gardening gone awry." 

The flowers were brought to America to be sold as ornamental plants, which makes sense because they're very pretty. But then it was discovered how quickly these things spread.

These flowers have "escaped into the wild and become invasive" which, for your yard, means it's much harder for natural plants and the grass that you want to grow because these flowers dominate.

So how do you get rid of these flowers?

How to Get Rid of Siberian Squill

Luckily, it's easy to get rid of these guys.

First, you'll want to identify the flowers in your yard to make sure they're actually this invasive species. Siberian Squill, according to the University of Minnesota Extension Office, is identified by the stem:

"Stem: One or more arching, hairless flower stalks form from the center of the rosettes."

The leaves:

"Leaves: 5-inch-long, grass-like, hairless leaves emerge from one point."

The flowers:

"Flowers: 1-inch-wide, bell-shaped flowers occur singly or as a group of 2-3 at the top of a slim stem. Consists of six flaring, blue petals with a dark blue center strip and six white stamens with blue tips. Flower color may vary with variety and include white, pink or violet."

And the seeds:

"Seeds: Seed capsules are green and bumpy, and turn brown as they mature and split to produce dark reddish-brown seeds."

If you are in fact dealing with Siberian Squill, the University of Minnesota Extension Office says that you can mow over the flowers or dig them up before they spread their seeds.

And beyond that, it's just a matter of monitoring your yard and seeing if they come back in future springs.