I think you will find it is called bind weed. It will eventually flower a produce a white trumpet, but not before it strangles the plants it's growing though. I hope this helps.

Susie

That's bindweed by the sound of it. Its roots spread out under the soil like spaghetti - and it re-grows from a tiny piece left in the ground. The best way is to put canes in along your borders and to train it up the canes. Then put a plastic bottle (cut the bottom off) over the top of the cane and spray systemic weedkiller into the bottle. This will protect any other plants you have nearby.

Otherwise, an answer is to dig, dig, dig, tracing the white roots as far back as you can, and removing every scrap. This is very tedious and will take you a very long time to do. Do NOT compost any part of this invasive weed.

At a National garden near here, they had to take all the plants out of an infested bed, and having dug it over, they've spread black plastic over the soil which will stay there for two years.

thanks susie you are spot on ,hopefully someone can tell me how to get rid of it

Well - I've tried, John!

lol ???

Maybe he hasn't seen/read it yet, Dido - or else he's ignoring me! Sob, sob..:.-((((

thanks spritshenry for your help ,what would be the best weed killer to spray into the bottle

I'm not up to date with weedkillers - I know there are several systemic ones around that haven't been banned by the EU, though, so take a look at your local Garden Centre, as they'll be law-abiding, I hope!

It MUST be a systemic one, though, which goes via the leaves into the roots.

thanks spritzhenry

You're welcome, and good luck. I think you have a lot of work ahead of you!

One containing Glyphosate will be fine. Best done in mid-late September for maximum uptake as this is when the sugars in the leaf are taken down to the roots for winter storage. Don't be tempted to cut back or pull up any as every leaf left on means more Glyphosate can be taken up by the plant.