First one to post!

Another link for identifying noxious weeds in various states (New Jersey is included) is HERE ... http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/wildlife/nnis/r9-nnis-state-contacts.shtml ...

Hope this helps, Herb.

Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Actually that almost sounds more like daisy fleabane (Erigeron annuus) than oxeye daisy. And daisy fleabane is native is many parts of north america.

Thanks Green thumb and Mary....I think my flowers are smaller. I couldn't believe it yesterday when I saw one starting to grow in my south garden. There is a bud....as soon as it blooms I will take a picture and post it...and then yank it out! HM

I'm new to Dave's Garden so just came across this thread - might I add Yellow Scabiosa, Tall Verbena, and Rose Campion? While all three of those are just fine in small quantities, they themselves have not heard of "small quantities!" and pop up absolutely everywhere. Fortunately, all three are easy to remove, but I sure have to stay on top of them!!

Carole

I pulled up a pickup load of Dame's Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) today. I started with one little bitty plant about 8 years ago, when I didn't know any better. It reseeds itself all over the place. This year I'm going to stay on top of it and try to get it all erradicated before any of it goes to seed. Then hopefully it will be gone from my yard. Unless...how long can the seeds lie dormant and still sprout? I don't think I want to know.

The only good thing I can say about it is that it pulls up pretty easy.

Each plant can produce up to 20,000 seeds. I believe I read somewhere that the seed bank on this is around 5 years. Could be a lot worse.

Oh my! That means I've probably got a gazillion seeds laying around laughing at me while I pull their ancestors up by the pickup loads. :)

That's the spirit, waste them with a sense of humor. They're a lot like Garlic Mustard in that sooner or later the seed bank is exhausted and all you need to do is slide into maintenance mode. I had a girlfriend who used to live in an efficiency apartment in an extremely undesirable section of Chicago. She had a major cockroach problem. She (like you, had a sense of humor) and used to name them after x-boyfriends and people she didn't like before she slammed them as they scurried across her counter top. I was aghast but was laughing at the same time. She showed my how all she had to do was shut the lights off in the kitchen and how she could nail a few and she used to comment about "look whose laughing now" SPLAT. Why your comments made me think of her is beyond me but they did. Maybe because some of these plants are the cockroaches of the plant world? I don't know but thanks for the giggles of seeds laying around waiting to germinate that are laughing.

Well, I'll take on the Hesperis seeds anyday over cockroaches. Yikes! I can look the seeds in they eye and laugh back at them while I shake Granny Dame and Uncle Rocket in their shiny little faces. I think I'd be more scared of the cockroaches than they were of me.

Ummmm......does this mean you now have cockroaches named after you?

That would be deceased cockroaches as they were named prior to squishing.

In my first apartment in my first year of college in Albany, NY, my roommates and I would bake roaches in the oven. Entice them in and blast 'em. Those were the days of a lot of incense burning.

Yum.

The annoying weed of the hour: blackberries.

Naaa, no cockroaches named after me (at least that I know of) but she did humor me by naming one she slammed after a boyrfriend I was no longer enamored with. She was my buddy!

Uh oh!

You are correct your Honor, they were named prior to squishing.

Baked roaches? Oh how delightful. When I was in Mexico I had chocolate covered grasshoppers or something equally as distasteful. They didn't taste bad at all. I always wondered about getting my hands on enough cockroaches to be able to chocolate coat them to give to someone special. I bet they'd taste a lot like Crunch bars.

We live in the middle of 40 acres of big woods in a remote part of the Missouri Ozarks. The invasive plants here were introduced by us back in the days of total ignorance. My list includes:

Numero Uno: Vinca Minor. It's everywhere and spreading. We are actively trying to eradicate it. Our methods include smothering, hand digging, burning and round-up. There are days when it makes me cry.

Less serious: Dames Rocket and Oxeye or shasta daisy. (Are they one in the same?)

Successfully eradicated: english ivy and kudzu.

RW

Good for you, RW.

Recognizing that we want to do and what we should do (even when painful) are not identical, is one of the first steps towards living well and not contributing to delinquency.

I think (since herbaceous stuff isn't my forté; forty? forttee?) that Dame's Rocket is Hesperis and Oxeye/Shasta daisy is now something like Leucanthemum.

Visit doom upon them.

Way to go!

Well, Viburnum Valley, you're right. I believe they are Hesperis matronalis and Leucanthemum vulgare. The Hm is pretty easy to pull but the daisies are a different story. Both seem to thrive in sun or shade it doesn't matter.

I forgot to mention a few, too. Seresia (sp?) Lespedeza came to us in a wildlife bundle 25 years ago and also autumn olive. I planted ajuga about 20 years ago and am still dealing with it too.

However, it's the vinca that is nightmarish. I'm not sure if the root systems of that plant can be completely destroyed. I think it should be banned from sale. Right up there with Purple Loosestrife. I can really beat myself up over the stuff. That's one area where the new politically correct "zero tolerance" certainly should be applied.

I think I'll go beat up on some vinca instead of me! I would be really proud of a "Way to go!" on that species, Equilibrium.

RW

One gardeners weed... :)

I live in an are of high desert where most things don't grow well unless vulgarus is in their name or they are called thugs by most of civilized gardeners. LOL

One cute plant that i've been babying for three years (given by a neighbor) i just identified as a euphorbia that is on the noxious plant list in many, many states. I can barely keep it alive.

I bought a puny one gallon vinca two years ago. It has maybe doubled in size, it has at least 8 branches out from the center now and they are almost 9 inches long!

Yeah, you're right, tombaak, I guess. But I'll tell ya, I'd keep a real close eye on that vinca. :o)

One time on a trip to Arizona, I had an opportunity to go through a nature center, I think it was in Tuscon. Anyway, they had examples of the different types of deserts. I remember that it was on a slope and as you walked you went from one type of desert to another. The high desert was my favorite. At the time, I wished I could spend a whole season to see how it changed.

RW

If it is listed as a noxious weed in any state...why even try to grow it? It doesn't matter if it will grow where *you* are, or not. It might not grow in *your* yard...but it may grow quite well 3 houses down, or on the next street, or in the next county....and this is how the problems start. Surely there are native plants, or non-invasive exotics that could do the same job for you!

I swear, I wish the government would start white-listing more plants.

Autumn Olives are a real problem here, because birds can carry seeds quite a ways in their intestines.

A friendly bit of advice dodecatheon, i would be very careful about statements to that effect. People like the freedoms granted to them in this country. Trying to tell a gardener what they can grow in their yard because you don't want it in yours may very well get you some less than polite d-mails, and possibly censored by Dave. Many arguments have started in this forum and several people have left willingly or otherwise because of them.

If you *really* think that if it is listed as a noxious weed in any state you shouldn't grow it, check out the plants in your own yard. I suspect you would find many are noxious weeds.

Morning glories, melons, tibouchina, mullein, raspberries, blackberries, passion fruit, mimosa, miscanthus, pampas grass, poppies, many palm trees, many, many ferns, way, way too many grasses to name (including most turf grasses!), dutchman's pipe, violets, begonias, mulberries, bananas, yams, jasmine, lantana, privet, ferns, honeysuckle, several bamboos, guava, mint, plums, almonds, wisteria and even some orchids are noxious weeds in one state or another. And that is just to name a few!

PS. I loved your cream of tomato basil soup. We like it with rice in it.

:)


This message was edited Jun 19, 2006 5:49 AM

Cream of tomato basil soup? Sounds yummy. Is it posted somewhere?

It is in the recipe forum. Here is a direct link... http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/475609/

Thanks!

LOL I've come back to edit this post to say that in reading the other thread I must have printed the recipe out but never did get around to making it.

This message was edited Jun 19, 2006 5:51 PM

Morning Glory is my hated WEED! It's roots go everywhere and it goes up everything. I'm always chasing the MG and the slugs!

Somermoone, oh, yes - MG is a nightmare!!! I managed to bring some with me from my former home in Seattle. I dug up a favorite climbing rose and lo and behold, MG came, too. I really thought I'd done a good job of removing any trace. Oh, well. I guess I'd rather fool with MG than with nettles and sheep sorrel (both of which I have an abundance!). And horsetail. Lovely, prolific plants that they are.

Carole