Marilyn Sallee, coordinator of Cross Timbers Invaders, begins her spiel on invasive plants in the Chapel on the Bosque, at the Stephenville Museum’s Native and Heirloom Plant Fair on Saturday.
As an Invader, Marilyn documents invasive plants by recording the species and GPS coordinates every time she sees one. She then enters the data online to track the spread of invasives. Education is also part of her mission and she delivers her speech a couple times a week somewhere in the Ft Worth area.
The main problem with invasives, she says, is that they out-compete and drive out the good plants, which destroys habitat and eliminates diversity.
At the Plant Fair I walked around with her a little as she pointed out invasives for sale by vendors and invasives in the landscaping at the museum complex. There was nandina, photinia and privet for starters. Then we noticed agarita for sale and almost got into a fight over them. Just kidding about the fight. There were two agaritas and we each got one.
The plant fair itself was popular and the museum grounds were extensive. I made a note to come back another time to explore the hiking trail and peek into some of the buildings.
In addition to the agarita I found a good many other things I couldn’t do without and came away with my pocketbook rather diminished.
Comments (2)
Dear Bill,
That nandina is aggressive! Not only does it spread, it’s the dickens to dig out once it gets any size at all. (You know this only too well and Marilyn warned people.) Still, it has berries the birds like (I saw a host of cedar waxings munching away one afternoon a couple of years ago), and the leaves are pretty too — make nice bases for homemade corsages….so I am torn.
Loved the photo of the plant sale.
And here’s a really neat website about Invasive Species you may not have seen.
http://invasivespecies.blogspot.com/
Great to meet you last weekend in Austin,
J.
Hi Julie. i know what you mean. It’s one thing to avoid planting something, but to tear out established plants in your landscape is different. Where i lived before there were huge hedges all around the back yard and even though they were mostly privet and photinia, I couldn’t bear to take them out.
I know what you mean about trying to get rid of things you already have that are invasive. I’m still trying to talk myself into digging out a Burning Bush (Euonymus elata), which is invasive here. It’s just a big ball of guilt lurking in the back of the garden.