Invasive plants: Where does one gardener begin?
Eurasian bush honeysuckles, as the USDA鈥檚 Forest Invasive Plants Resource Center t, 鈥渁re difficult to tell apart, even in the field.鈥� That鈥檚 spot on, and I鈥檒l have to wait until spring to tell if the bushes that grow on my land are Tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) or Morrow's Honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowii) or bella, or showy fly, honeysuckle (Lonicera x bella), or a mix of the three.
Whatever the species, all are invasive, botanical bullies that displace native plants and negatively affect native wildlife. Like s, Vermont, where I live, maintains a list of plants that are flora non grata, species that are illegal to import, sell, or distribute. The list includes trees, shrubs, vines, aquatics, grasses, and herbaceous plants but are grouped together under the term 鈥�.鈥�
Bush honeysuckles are on many states鈥� noxious-weed list, right up there with (Lythrum salicaria), (Polygonum cuspidatum), and the in Brooklyn, .
Invasiveness is site specific (what's invasive in California isn't necessarily in Virginia), but these plants and a few others are considered noxious weeds pretty much everywhere.
Potentially invasive plants
Last year, Vermont鈥檚 went beyond the state鈥檚 official noxious-weed list and established a watch list of other potentially invasive non-native, or exotic, plants. The watch list includes some familiar and popular names, such as (Acer platanoides) and (Berberis thunbergii).
If the state accepts VIEPC鈥檚 recommendations, it won鈥檛 mean that gardeners will have to cut down their Norway maples or rip out their barberry hedges, but it will mean that commercial trade in these plants will be illegal.
Voluntary compliance
Until that happens, VIEPC and Greenworks, the Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association, have created a for Vermont nurseries, landscape designers, and landscapers. More than 50 individuals and firms have signed on, agreeing not to sell or use Norway maple, Japanese barberry, (Berberis vulgaris), (Euonymus alatus; see first photo above), (Acer ginnala), and (Iris pseudacorus), as well as any cultivars of these species.
My small part in reining in invasives includes buying only from nurseries that have signed the Greenworks Code -- and conducting an all-out war on shrub honeysuckles, and (Thamnus cathartica; see photo at left). There are enough plants to keep me busy for years, so I try to that 鈥淭he journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.鈥�
Or, in this case, the extermination of a thousand buckthorns and honeysuckles begins with one shrub.
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Karan Davis Cutler blogs regularly at Diggin鈥� It. To read more, click here. She's a former magazine editor and newspaper columnist and the author of scores of garden articles and more than a dozen books, including 鈥淏urpee -- The Complete Flower Gardener鈥� and 鈥淗erb Gardening for Dummies.鈥� Karan now struggles to garden in the unyieldingly dense clay of Addison County, Vt., on the shore of Lake Champlain, where she is working on a book about gardening to attract birds and other wildlife
