'Crimson Pygmy' barberry is on the 'do not buy, sell or plant' list for Indiana. Photo courtesy Bailey Nurseries.
Garden centers and nurseries are full of trees, shrubs and perennials ready for consumers to plant. To guide us in our selections comes a publication from the Invasive Plant Species Assessment Working Group.
The 22-member group, formed in 2001, spent six years analyzing first-hand scientific reports on dozens of plant species, examining how invasive or potentially invasive they are in Indiana.
They looked at how these widely available plants escape our landscapes to take root in natural areas, where they displace or overwhelm native species, disrupting the ecology for birds, butterflies and other critters. The result of their effort is a downloadable pamphlet, [download id=”16″]
There are 19 plants on the Do Not Buy, Sell or Plant List, several of which are found in most garden centers. These include Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), several species of privet (Ligustrum), Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) and purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), the latter of which is outright banned in Indiana.
Three of the most popular groundcovers on the market — wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei), English ivy (Hedera helix) and myrtle (Vinca minor) — made the list of plants to use with caution. These groundcovers should be planted only adjacent to lawns or concrete and they should not be allowed to climb, the pamphlet says.
This list is not the making of tree huggers. Several industry groups, including the Indiana Nursery & Landscape Association, the Indiana Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Indiana Seed Trade Association joined the Indiana Native Plant and Wildflower Society, the Indiana Wildlife Federation, the Nature Conservancy, beekeepers and state and federal agencies to develop the list.
The pamphlet helps us make smart choices for our landscape. Armed with this document, we also can ask nursery owners and garden center managers to reconsider the plants they stock.
Then this pamphlet should be checked out. The Crimson Pygmy is quite adorable.