Escaping - Nothing new

[petershaw]

The thread about Oxalis pes-caprae  reminds me that "we" have a long history of thinking that a cool plant from somewhere else is going to play nice in our garden. I grew O. megalorrhiza 45 years ago in my quest for caudiciforms and gave a few plants to a friend at the local college botany greenhouse, returned 30+ years later and my gift had become a resident in almost every pot.

In California we have seen plants from the southern hemisphere take over large areas of our landscapes, some of the Eucalyptus and Acacias for example. This is not to bash SH plants, as our well loved Liquidambar has turned into a big mistake as a street or landscape tree in CA.

Where am I going with this? I'm pretty new to exotic bulb collecting and want to be sure I don't do this to my landscape. I love Sparaxis, but not like this. (Okay, I love walking past this on my daily walks)



Visiting the UCSC arboretum yesterday I came across a gladiolus that was going to town.. Beautiful but again, I dont want to be weeding too much any longer (late 60's), listed as G. tristis 'Moonlight' but wrong color. I think this plant was a volunteer that liked the label.



I am just hoping that the ones I want are going to be tame. 

Peter

[Uli]

Hello Peter,

Probably all of us do not want to introduce a new weed to our garden or the landscape. 

This can always happen as an accident but most of it can be avoided by careful observation of new plants and quick, consequent action in case of doubt. If lots of unwanted seedlings appear, they can still be removed before they flower or when they flower, before seeding themselves again. Careful disposal is important in that case. Or if a rhizomatous plant wants to turn up everywhere. This has happened to me with an unnamed Tradescantia and with Ruellia simplex or some varieties of mint.
I have a large Oxalis collection which contains some species with weedy potential. All Oxalis are pot grown and only released into the open garden after several years of observation. Especially those which produce hundreds of papery mini bulbils around the stem base are dangerous and I remove the entire stem before it is fully dormant and will be shedding the bulbili.
The tricky thing is that in one garden a plant may be difficult to grow and needs pampering and in another setting or climate the same plant may be a weed. 
The orange flower is Moraea ochroleuca which is well behaved and slow to increase indeed with me, see what I mean? 
The beautiful Corydalis nobilis was impossible to maintain in my former garden in Germany but is a dreaded weed in Sweden. I could not talk my Swedish friends into digging up some of their weed for my garden......
I would not let my pleasure spoil by worrying too much about weedy potential, it is unpredictable anyway but avoid the ones which are already known.

Uli 

[David Pilling]

Probably all of us do not want to introduce a new weed to our garden or the landscape.

" This variety is also known as 'Miss Willmott's Ghost', after the nineteenth-century gardener, Ellen Willmott, who liked to secretly scatter seeds of the plant in other people's gardens."

In my experience, anything new should be removed immediately. All too often I have spotted something novel, and thought I'd let it develop to see what it is - by then it is too late.

[petershaw]

The beautiful Corydalis nobilis was impossible to maintain in my former garden in Germany but is a dreaded weed in Sweden. I could not talk my Swedish friends into digging up some of their weed for my garden......
Uli

Thanks for your response. This is exactly what I was thinking about, (not the Corydalis).

I was awarded the "rest of the bunch" of seeds last fall and sowed them all, along with some of the Sparaxis I collected from the neighbors yard and I will now have to decide how to evaluate the 40 some odd pots of seedlings. Some are not really very interesting to me and I will harvest the "bulbs" for the exchange. Others I am going to try to figure out how they will do.

I really like small growing plants, some Lachenalia, Massonia, and Albuca for example, but also curious to see how the Ferraria and Babiana behave here. The gophers moved some of the Babiana around but so far I like them that way.

We're going to the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden soon along with a visit to Ruth Bancroft's garden in Walnut Creek. I first saw Ferraria there and want to see how it might be spreading.

Probably all of us do not want to introduce a new weed to our garden or the landscape.

Ellen Willmott, who liked to secretly scatter seeds of the plant in other people's gardens."

Ah yes, now called Guerrilla gardening... not a bad thing sometimes, we have a "vacant" Beach house across the street and spread some magenta poppy seeds, wonderful show.

[Emil]

We're going to the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden soon along with a visit to Ruth Bancroft's garden in Walnut Creek. I first saw Ferraria there and want to see how it might be spreading.

I put a 4" pot of Ferraria into my dry garden in Oakland two years ago. The clump is now over a foot wide with a few bulbs coming up further out. Only one of the center, oldest bulbs flowered. Definitely something to keep an eye on and control spread. 

Emil