Invasive Plants or Choose Wisely!

Since it's Fall and harvest time, and Dave's has a lot of new neighbors, I thought it would be a good time discuss invasive plants.

As serious gardeners, we are the primary stewards of our local habitats. It is our responsibility to maintain and protect these habitats by our choice of plants and how we use them.

Every state has been invaded by species of plants that have run amok. What people do not realize, is that when you take something out of its native habitat, you usually do not take the natural checks and balances, such as disease and predators that keep them in check.

One of the most heartbreaking to me is the Malelucca tree. It was brought into Florida from Australia back in the 1920's. Malelucca makes willow pale in comparison when it comes to sucking up water. They were brought in to literally drain swampy land, the Everglades, for development. Our precious irreplaceable Everglades is being decimated by this tree and there is no way to stop it. It thrives because there are no insect vectors to keep it in check. You can't burn them either because it helps the seeds to germinate.

Kudzu is another species of plant that has literally taken over whole states and destroyed native plants and animals and habitats. Again, it thrives here because there are no disease or insect vectors to keep it in check.

Most of you have never had the heartbreaking experience like I have, seeing a habitat you grew up in utterly destroyed by a foreign invader. I hope you never do. I literally grew up swamp tromping in the Everglades. Every weekend I'd don my water proof boots, grab my camera and drive just 20 miles from Ft. Lauderdale to go wading through the saw grass, beat the alligators off with a stick, annoy the egrets and eagles and explore the hammocks for unknown orchids. It's a 2 hour drive now to get to the Everglades.

It is our responsibility to know what we are growing. It is our responsibility to maintain and control what we are growing. We have a responsibility to ourselves, our children, grandchildren and neighbors to conserve our precious habitats and native plants. We have a responsibility to educate others when we see them planting invasive plants.

So when you see seeds or plants offered that you gotta have, take a few minutes to check them out in Plantfiles here on Dave's or search the internet to see if they might be considered invasive in your state before you introduce them to your habitat. As serious gardeners, it should come naturally and willingly to choose wisely!

I'd like to hear from other gardeners, their experience with invasive plants, ones that got away from them and ones they are fighting to get rid of.

Xeramtheum

Colocasia esculenta and the mexican petunia Chi Chi. Try as I may, I'll never get rid of either of them. I do bring in tropicals from out of the area but the temperature controls them thankfully.

I'm fighting a losing battle with cordatotriloba .. a morning glory that is in a race with the kudzu. Last year I only saw it in a few places around town and this year it's almost everywhere I look. It has taken over my hedge rose.

X

ardesia,
You bring up yet another aspect of plants-namely that some, like the Colocasia Esculenta are extreme problems in your neighborhood-while they are tender bulbs in our zone 5.

So, as "X" cautioned-it's another reason to research "must have" plants.

I feel strongly, that it is our duty, to be good stewards of the land.


Sasha

I agree strongly with Sasha. It is our job as gardeners to know what we are planting. Many invasive species are outlawed by state governments but many seem to slip through the cracks. Just this past spring, our Virginia department of agriculture inspector was telling us about a gigantic national seed company that was unwittingly selling seeds for highly invasive species here to big box stores statewide. This type of thing happens all the time.

I am very sad to hear your situation in the everglades X :(...... as new gardeners people can put triffid plants in out of ignorance....so I think that there should be the correct information on the plant labels stating that the plant may be invasive if planted in zone *****....that would be a good place to start....second a basic knowledge of the invasive nature of some plants and their effects should be explained to our children at school and by us....so that when they become gardeners they will know to research their plants before planting.
As we all know what is a weed in some places is hard to grow in others......we all need to arm ourselves with knowledge.
Good luck with the problem I hope they solve it before it is too late
chrissy

We have a similar experience with Salt Cedars out here. They have become so invasive and overcrowded along the very few water ways we have out here in the desert. Water is the big issue. They apparently suck up so much water, and in my environment water being so scarce and the water table is always in danger, they have become banned. The state has even begun a massive eradication effort in the past few years in order to restore other native species and to restore the water table.

X, thanks for starting a thread like this to raise people's awareness.

My garden was my DMIL's before it was mine and there were quite a few invasives planted here. I don't think she realized what she was planting, and if it looked pretty it went in the ground. I'm not talking about the scale of things that some of you are, but it still seems like an uphill battle all the time. I've managed to pretty much get rid of the Crown Vetch and the Bishop's Weed but I'm still fighting the Virginia Creeper and Creeping Charlie. I also have a neighbor who had planted Trumpet Creeper and wild forest Ferns, then the property was abandoned. These are the things that can take the joy out of gardening, and it's such a shame. I've actually seen tons of Virginia Creeper for sale at the big box stores and I admit that the thought did run through my mind to tip the whole shelf over!

I once read an article on the top 10 garden thug plants, and I think I had 5 of them. Another one I have here is Chameleon Plant, but at least that one is contained within a heavy stone border.

For newbies I always tell them to remember that anything that has "creeper" or "weed" in it's name isn't a good idea to start a garden with.

I have found the Passion flower Maypop to be invasive in my backyard with its underground runners.

Oh yes blasted runners from passionfruit grafts please everyone only buy seedlings......you just cannot get rid of those things.....I am a passionfruit lover but I hate those things runners still being hacked out after 12 years and always coming back bigger and better than ever!

Here are a few invasive plants that are invading my garden:
Garlick onion, ivy, bedstray, creeping veronica, bishops weed,
virginia creeper, woods aster. Daylily Quanzo. Probably others that I can't think of at the moment

Here is a link where you can look up your states invasive plants.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/noxiousDriver

X

X , thanks for sharing this information. I have a very limited space for gardening and can't deal with the invasives. I don't wait for them to take over, if they start wandering from the original site of planting, they are uprooted. So if the word invasive appears when I research the seeds that I get , they are not sown in my garden.
Very good article for sharing!