Learn to Identify Invasive Plants

So many of the plants I grew up around or even some relatively newly introduced adapted species in the nursery trade that have characteristics that I like have unfortunately become troublesome invasive species. These include trees, shrubs and even grasses that have been introduced to the landscape trade or for livestock forage because they appeared to solve a problem, thrive across a variety of gardening zones or just looked pretty. Unfortunately many are now displacing not only native plants but endangering native fauna as well. I have previously written about some of these. Search this blog in the sidebar for “invasive” to find previous posts.

There are a lot of great online resources such as this list of central Texas invasives that will help you identify non-native invasives that may be in your area too. If you are in Texas, the Invaders of Texas program has on-demand online training and has a couple of in person workshops scheduled for later this year that should help you learn to identify invasives as well. For those of you in the DFW area, mark your calendars for a workshop in Arlington on September 27, 2014.

In addition to learning to recognize, avoid and help eliminate invasive species you can help stop the spread of invasives by using caution when adding new plants to your landscape or learning to manage some that you may have so they don’t leave your garden. There are many non-native hybrids available for purchase that have been developed that do not set seed and therefore can’t be distributed to other areas by the wildlife that visit your garden. I have a tree form wisteria that I maintain. I grew up around these lovely plants and am very fond of their spring blooms so I take the time needed to keep it pruned to tree form in a size that allows me to clip off all developing seed pods so it can’t spread.

Many invasive species identification resources such as the one above give alternative, similar native plant suggestions for you to plant if you are unable to find a sterile hybrid or won’t be able to otherwise keep a plant from potentially escaping your gardens. The local flora and fauna will appreciate your efforts to become informed gardeners.

Menacing Invasive Plants

The last time you thought of a plant as menacing might have been while you watched “Little Shop of Horrors”, however there may be menacing plants hiding in plain sight in your yard, non-native invasives. I must admit that before I became more aware of this issue, I thought anything sold in the nursery trade had the potential for being a good plant in my yard. I quickly found out that several of these plants were not well adapted to my area without a lot of care. This was not as disturbing as to find out that something that I had purchased and tended to, might have the potential of escaping my yard and wreaking havoc on the local environment, much as the fire ant displaced the native harvester ant that was the main food source for the now endangered Texas horned lizard.

Thankfully not all non-natives are invasive. To find out why you would want to know which plants are non-native invasives so that you can avoid them, the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center has a wealth of information about what havoc these menaces can wreak on the environment, industry and agriculture and what you can do to help combat them. They also have some great resource links if you want to do some follow up reading. Another fun place to learn more about invasive plants is from Commander Ben’s website. This amazing teen has put together entertaining and kid friendly information about the dark side of invasive plants while providing well researched facts.

Two invasive plants that already had a foothold on my property when I acquired it, and that I do battle with, are Johnson grass and privet. They are pictured. Luckily, privet is a shallow rooted plant and before a single plant turns into a thicket, it is easily pulled with a weed wrench. Small ones can even be easily pulled by hand when the ground has enough moisture in it. Johnson grass can be hand dug but a large infestation may have to be initially controlled by chemicals. In my experience any newly opened piece of ground, especially one that is not regularly mowed such as around a newly placed post will invite Johnson grass to take up residence.

Please do your part to educate yourself so that your lovely gardens don’t become a breeding ground for an invasion on the surrounding native environment.

A Terribly Beautiful Mistake

Some valuable information that a garden coach can provide to their clients is what plants will look good and thrive in a client’s garden. Equally valuable is what not to plant. Reasons for not planting include, the plant getting too large for the location, the plant is unlikely to survive in the given conditions, or the reason I’m going to discuss in this post, the plant is likely to run rampant so that it smothers out the other desirable plants.

These “Godzilla” plants usually look beautiful and tame enough in their small pots in the garden center. However, get them home and just like kudzu, they will cover or push out everything in its ever expanding area of influence.

When I first added plants to my water garden, I did some reading and knew not to plant things like full sized cattails, water hyacinth or horsetail reed. The dwarf versions of cattail and horsetail reed were supposed to be better behaved however, so I gave them a try. The dwarf cattail showed its Godzilla nature quickly and I ripped in out before it gained much headway.

The dwarf horsetail reed on the other hand, behaved for a couple of years. It stayed where I planted it and almost looked at one point like it might fade away. In a couple of years it began to spread slowly and I was still not concerned. Then, in what seemed like overnight, it covered about half of my pond, tried to clog up my filter and pump system and spread out into my surrounding garden. I do hate that it got so aggressive, because the dragonflies love to perch on it and I have many photographic art prints, note cards and bookmarks because of this. It had to go though. (I’m still working on rooting out the remnants.) After my husband spent several sessions wrestling the main part of the invasion out of the pond, we left it to dry out thoroughly before shipping it out as trash, so that it would not be able to spread if it found a favorable location.

Two other plants that looked so beautiful in their small pots that I just had to take them home and add them to my pond were floating heart and a four leaf water clover. I have to admit that I had been warned about the floating heart, but its nice leaves and pretty yellow flowers proved too tempting. “I can keep it in check, I reasoned.” Big, beautiful, mistake. We did battle it and get it removed before the horsetail and water clover got out of hand.

I really like the water clover. In the open water, its leaves lie flat on the surface and remind me of searching for terrestrial four leaf clovers as a kid. We tried pulling the water clover back to one curve in the pond. I truly thought I’d be able to keep it in check if I had it in a small enough area. Not so, its Godzilla nature was too strong and I am currently working to eliminate it too. It is no where near as pretty when it is crowding the water lilies and standing proud from the water’s surface.

I hope these tips will help you avoid making your own terribly beautiful mistakes in your water garden.