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  • From: "Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] N.E. states are declaring war on harmful non-native plants - The Boston Globe
  • Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:10:59 -0700

Bill, Bill, Bill, that is one BIG assumption. The problem with invasives is that people are just plain lazy or just plain stupid. They plant bamboo because it is such a pretty little plant in that cute little Oriental dish. Then they wring their hands and cry "woe is me, whatever shall I do" when the damn stuff takes over the whole neighborhood and their neighbors are threatening to shoot them.

A butterfly bush that Joe Suburbia is going to deadhead over day? Give me a break! It ain't gonna happen!

And, I'd suggest you take a closer look, I've been traveling up the coast to Coos Bay and points north and up the middle of the state since the 50s. I've seen star thistle, so are you sure you know what to look for?

The reality is that people don't stop thistle or anything else. The person who is a good manager of their property is RARE! In fact, in some areas they are an endangered species or already extinct!

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Jones" <billj AT harborside.com>


Unfortunately this is classically representative of the ignorance of
which I speak. The point is that a newly acquired butterfly bush can be
prevented from spreading simply by cutting off the spent flowers.
Period. So if you live in an area where there is none now, you can keep
it that way. Just as if you live in an area not currently burning down,
it can be kept that way by not throwing a match into it. The danger
from matches so far eclipses the danger from butterfly bush by many
orders of magnitude. Kudzu should not be planted in the South, but I
don't think it would even thrive here, without summer water. Kudzu is
an inherently differently sort of plant than butterfly bush, because it
spreads asexually, rooting everywhere it hits the ground. So
deadheading won't work for that. But this isn't the end of the ignorance.





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