First thing, a note to all horticultural members: The next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be on Wednesday, November 25. This is our AGM and banquet at St. Mary’s Cultural Centre, and is for members and invited guests only. We’ll enjoy a delicious banquet, silent auction, and some interesting entertainment! Good company and good food: it will be a great evening! Hope you will be there; please call Liz at 782-2830 for full details.
Our gardens are now ready for winter, and already I’m thinking about next year! I was thumbing through a gardening book that was kindly given to me by the daughter of a wonderful gardener, after her Mom’s passing. The book is entitled “Favourite Flowers for Canadians” by Stan Larke. Many flowers were listed, but there’s one in particular that I would like to tell you about, so make a cup of tea and sit down with me for a few minutes.
One plant that was listed in the book was Lythrum, or purple loosestrife. Years ago, I’m sure almost every prairie gardener had at least one clump of this lovely flower in their perennial beds. The plant featured dense spikes of purplely-pink flowers, grew to about four feet high so it was an excellent background plant, and was very hardy. Sounds perfect, right? And at the time, it was. It was believed that the “horticultural form” of this plant was sterile, not to be confused with the noxious loosestrife in the wild, and so was safe to plant. Please note that this book came out in 1970: things have changed now!
I remember reading about the loosestrife controversy in various gardening magazines in recent years, so I wondered if the plant was still available for sale. When I did some research, I couldn’t find it listed as readily available. But more disturbing, I also found many sites that openly discouraged gardeners from planting this plant, even the “horticultural” variety, and I learned that the plant was actually banned in many locations.
There is one site that was a great source of information, and it was from the Manitoba Purple Loosestrife Project. Since this is close to home, I thought that the information would be relevant to us.
The site, www.purpleloosestrife.org, lists ten frequently asked questions about loosestrife.
Probably for any gardeners that still have purple loosestrife in their gardens, the first question would be, is the plant safe in the garden? Because the plant does not seem to produce many seedlings and the clumps stay relatively the same size, many gardeners would wonder why they should remove it from their gardens. Here is the answer from the site: “… Many gardeners still believe that their loosestrife is sterile, especially since the damage that it causes may not be noticeable in the immediate vicinity of the home. There are several benefits to removing garden varieties of loosestrife. First, a potential source of pollen exchange is removed from the environment which can decrease the number of plants that become fertilized and set seed, preventing existing plants from spreading to new areas. Most loosestrife infestations originate from garden cultivars. Removing all loosestrife plants can prevent future outbreaks, as well as reducing the potential for cross-fertilization. In addition, purple loosestrife is considered a noxious weed in several provinces and states, including Manitoba. Therefore, it is illegal to sell or possess any Lythrum cultivar. If a complaint is registered regarding loosestrife on your property, the plants can be removed at the owner’s expense by local weed control authorities.”
That doesn’t leave much doubt about the status of the poor loosestrife, does it? If you have loosestrife in your garden, you’ll want to do some research of your own before you decide what to do about the plant. As gardeners, we understand the responsibility of caring for the earth. And with gardening, as with all things, it’s better to prepare before there is a problem rather than after.
I found some interesting information about plants we can use instead of invasive plants, so next time we have tea, we can chat about that!
Have a great week, and enjoy a well-deserved rest from the garden!
