Our local invaders

[quanglewangle]

Following a thread on Gunnera (https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ra_100760.html) I thought I would share a list of some of the invasive species we have problems with here in West Cornwall.

Himalayan Balsam. Impatiens glandulifera (spreadby children popping the seeds. Clogs streams. Easy to control)

Montbretia Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora (Pretty, Sold in garden centres! Really bad problem here)

Fig, Hottentot Carpobrotus edulis (Grows on walls and cliffs in carpets. Frost leaves whole areas barren)

Wild Garlic, Three-cornered Allium triquetrum (Along footpaths and in gardens, especially mine)

Knotweed, Japanese Fallopia japonica (Well known invader)

These are all covered by Section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981,which makes it is an offense in England and Wales to allow them spread into the wild

Gunnera, subject of the thread mentioned isn't covered by the act, so far as I can see but is still awful, for reasons set out in the thread.

See https://naturenet.net/law/sched9.html

[Mamzie]

If they are an offense to spread to wild and invasive how can they still be sold please? Sure we may have crocosmia at the back of our hedging?

[quanglewangle]

Folks say often say "Ah but my cocosmia is not the invasive sort", which seems to me a bit like "... but I dont inhale".

By all means do your own research. You may have a safe cultivar.

When we moved here 8 years ago we had a tractor turn over 800m2 of fertile but neglected garden and collected a couple of builders' bags of bulbs. Perhaps half a ton. And its still a problem.


It may be the local conditions here favour it. Wet and warm.

[quanglewangle]

If they are an offense to spread to wild and invasive how can they still be sold please? Sure we may have crocosmia at the back of our hedging?

One of the problems with the act is "in the wild" - we don't really have any "wild" in UK

[veggiechicken]

I have problems with crocosmia too. My own fault. When we bought this house there was a lot of it in the garden so I pulled it up and threw it over the back fence which was an old orchard - where horses would graze. Then I had the chance to rent a bit of that old orchard myself which I did, of course, then I had to pull up the well established crocosmia I'd chucked over the fence - so I chucked them over my new back fence (land still being grazed).
Ten years later I was offered the chance to buy the bit I rented and the next bit where I'd chucked the blessed crocosmia. My actions came back to bite me on the bum twice.
Now, I pull them up, cut off the corms,bin them and chuck the green stuff into the chickens who like eating the leaves. Phew.

[Mamzie]

I have no idea how to tell if its its safe or what it is

Our house is from the 1870s, and was a row of 5 tiny cottages turned into 2. It was derelict when we got it, but we knew the people who had passed and apparently the Grandparent had been into gardening decades ago. We uncovered steps, paths, greenhouse bases and sheds galore buried under leaf mould, along with finding some lovely surprises, cobnut trees, honeysuckle, old roses, elderberry's, daffodil other bulbs, lovely old sweet pea, what I guess is honesty (by the lovely coin seeds) as appeared in lots of places as we cleared the 8 foot high bramble and collapsed trees.

[quanglewangle]

I have no idea how to tell if its its safe or what it is

If you have the bad sort you would know. You don't get a little bit of crocosmia: there would be pale green ensiform leaves popping up all over place now, or fairly soon.

[Nicos]

Here's a bit of a surprise...you can buy Japanese knotweed here in Garden Centres!

[veggiechicken]

AFAIK without looking it up to check, several of those invasive plants are also edible. We could control them by eating them:-
Hottentot figs, Allium triquetrum (which I eat often), Japanese knotweed

[quanglewangle]

Here's a bit of a surprise...you can buy Japanese knotweed here in Garden Centres!

Nothing surprises me sbout France: take acetone and high test peroxide in the supermarket. Try to buy those here and you could expect a dawn visit from the folks in black balaclavas.

[Mamzie]

Nothing surprises me sbout France: take acetone and high test peroxide in the supermarket. Try to buy those here and you could expect a dawn visit from the folks in black balaclavas.

Now wondering if I may be able to get creosote anywhere in France as we drive through on Holland in the summer ?

If you have the bad sort you would know. You don't get a little bit of crocosmia: there would be pale green ensiform leaves popping up all over place now, or fairly soon.

Whew - ours hasn't done that, so hopefully we are safe.

[quanglewangle]

AFAIK without looking it up to check, several of those invasive plants are also edible. We could control them by eating them:-
Hottentot figs, Allium triquetrum (which I eat often), Japanese knotweed

I could see Japanese knotweed being eaten by pandas, but people?

Perhaps we could we get some trendy chef to come up with a recipe for caramelized crocosmia corm tart?

[quanglewangle]

Now wondering if I may be able to get creosote anywhere in France as we drive through on Holland in the summer ?

Probably, but whether they will let you on the ferry/shuttle with it is another matter.

[Mamzie]

Probably, but whether they will let you on the ferry/shuttle with it is another matter.

I can imagine it now - other people getting pulled up for tobacco smuggling, and us with our jack of creosote for hubbies sheds'''

[veggiechicken]

I could see Japanese knotweed being eaten by pandas, but people?

Japanese knotweed – Identification, distribution, edibility – Galloway Wild Foods