How to Politely Inform?

My boss is a professor at a major university in New Jersey and I am his secretary. We both share a love of gardening. Today he noticed a photograph of gooseneck loosestrive (Lysimachia clethroides) I posted as background on my computer and he asked me what it was. I told him and quickly explained that it wasn't the invasive loosestrife but that it was a bit of a thug. He said, "Oh, I don't care, I just put purple loosestrife in my garden and I hope it's invasive to fill up the area." Of course, I told him that that was not the problem. And he said yes, he knew it was bad for the wetlands. Since I picture is worth a thousand words I quickly googled "purple loosestrife monoculture" and clicked on "Image." While doing this I asked him where he got it because I thought it was illegal to sell it. When he saw the image he said that the purple loosestrife he had didn't look anything like that. Well, to make a long story short, he actually had purple fringed loosestrife (Lysimachia ciliata Purpurea), which to my knowledge isn't invasive. But the fact remains that he THOUGHT he had planted purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) and he was ok with that.

I wanted to tell him why purple loosestrife was bad for the wetlands. I wanted to ask him how he thinks it gets there? But he was already acting defensive and I didn't want to come off as being on my high horse. And, did I mention that he's my boss! :)

So, my question is how does one inform in a non-judgmental way. Anyone have any thoughts?

Smack them silly with a few stalks of it. =P

Ok! Honestly its almost impossible to do it politely if the person is instantly becoming defensive about it as odds are they are defensive because they actually do know what they are doing is wrong and bad but are doing it despite that knowledge. I find almost always the person who becomes defensive the quickest is always the knowledgable type who does know better and hopefully ( and sometimes they do) will come around and use their knowledge eventually to do whats right for the enviroment.

Loosestrife is terrible here and yet there are many people who seem to think it can only spread a few feet away from the source not realizing seeds can be swept away for miles on a windy day.

I am glad you said something though and you should be proud of that and I am sure the Duckies would thank you. =)

Take a bit of the mercenary approach. You work for this person; you probably know very well what makes him/her tick, who/what they respect, and what they'll react to in a positive manner.

Provide the information from that angle. If there is another professor/person at the university who your boss respects (or wishes to be ingratiated to), steer the information through them. If you are at Rutgers (!), there are some pretty esteemed hort professors there (Dr. Elwin Orton being one of the premier in research/development of fine ornamental woody plant introductions) who may participate.

There are myriad ways to motivate; find the one (rather than direct confrontation if that doesn't seem to work) that turns the crank.

You'll have the warm feeling of having steered this fellow in the right direction, even if he wasn't interested in hearing it from you.

Best to steer clear of attempting to politely inform relatives, neighbors, or people with whom you work. It's been my experience that it isn't going to be worth your time. Aside from that, I don't particularly care for being patronized and I just don't want to be in a position of feeling as if it is my responsibility to "enlighten" people I am related to, live near, or have to work with. If a plant is allelopathic or capable of posing a risk to human health, I will say something but I keep it short, sweet, and simple and phrase the comment so that it doesn't allow for a response and immediately redirect the conversation to another area. I suspect your boss was back pedaling after he viewed the image of Pl when he stated the purple loosestrife he had didn't look anything like that (ya right). He's obviously an intelligent man however he has conscientiously chosen to ignore the facts given his comments that, "Oh, I don't care, I just put purple loosestrife in my garden and I hope it's invasive to fill up the area." I suspect you read his body language properly and he was acting defensively because he did probably plant PL but wasn't about ready to admit to it based on how you responded. If it were me, I would have dropped the issue like a lead balloon which is about what you did.

On a lighter note... have you any interest if beetles? Specifically Galerucella beetles ;) Perhaps you could give him a gift of a few thousand for Christmas.

All joking aside, I propagate a lot of plants. The vast majority I give away. All of the plants I propagate are natives or well behaved exotics and when I give them to somebody who either doesn't share my concerns or who isn't familiar with the issues, I will comment that the plant is a native or an introduced species that is well behaved that won't get into natural areas or create hard feelings for their neighbors. Best to sort of slip in the back door some times and particularly so with neighbors. The way I figure it is that every plant that a neighbor accepts from me and plants on their property is that much less space for them to plant something noxious or invasive that will ultimately end up on my property.

Yesterday I wanted to "smack him silly with a few stalk of it." Sadly, all I'd have to do is walk down to the lake a few blocks from my house to get some for the job. And while I won't gift him with a few thousand Galerucella beetles (lol), he might enjoy a gardening book that addresses invasive non-natives.

Equilibrium, I like your backdoor approach. I'm always dragging in plants for co-workers that I've propogated but never thought to mention their ecological qualities.

Thanks for all the good advice!

I think you can tell someone what is invasive and why its invasive. But you cannot control how they act or react. All you can do is inform, let them make their own decisions and then move on.