Members-only

page pg_standard.xsl meeducationmay10

Take a Class!

Annuals & Tender Perennials
with Marilyn Daly

DATE: Wednesdays, May 19-June 23 (six sessions)
1:00-3:00 PM OR 7:00-9:00 PM
FEE: $162 Garden pass member; $180 non-member

Not commonly seen in most gardens today the plants in this course demonstrate the beauty, advantages and techniques of growing new and unusual annuals and tender perennials. The class will challenge professional growers and gardeners to improve the diversity, quality, and availability of plants offered for sale by wholesale and local nurseries and garden centers and to encourage you, the gardener, to expand your horticultural palette of plants grown in your containers and gardens.

The Fragrance of Summer
with Nancy Gingrich Shenk

Date: Saturday, May 22
9:00 AM to 12 Noon
$90 Garden pass member $100 non-member

Evoke memories of summer nights and vacations with the fragrances of plant materials. We will fill low containers with sand and seashells, grasses, open fragrant roses, scented geranium foliage, lavender, honeysuckle vines, and other summer fragrant flowers. This design is created on sand to be eco friendly.
 
Lilies in Ikebana – “Lilytopia!”
with Midori Tanimune

Date: Wednesday, May 26
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
$81 Garden pass member $90 non-member

The fabulous Lilytopia exhibit throughout the East Conservatory will serve as an inspiration for the lily designs created in this class. Join the instructor for an after-hours walk through the exhibit. Return to the classroom and choose from an assortment of lilies to be the focal points in an Ikebana style design to create a unique living exhibit of your own.

In the Field:  Taking Aim at Invasive Plants

As anyone who has followed the spread of kudzu knows, invasive plants are a serious threat. “These types of plants take over natural areas and have a negative impact on the environment,” says Dr. Tomasz Anisko, curator of plants. “They may change the soil chemistry, out compete natives, and take over their habitat. This can erode support for native insect populations, including pollinators, as well as birds and other animals. It puts different players on the stage.”

These plant pests grow aggressively, are difficult to control, and can take over whole areas. Infestations are destructive to your pocketbook as well as to the environment—they are extremely expensive to control. 

Longwood Gardens is tackling this problem from several angles as part of a comprehensive strategy. “We’re about to introduce Longwood’s first plant collection policy that will essentially lay down the rules for all plants in the garden,” Anisko says. “It includes how we choose plants, acquire them, plant them, and dispose of them.” The policy is an outgrowth of the 2002 St. Louis Declaration on Invasive Plant Species developed by a consortium of public gardens to address the situation.

One approach is eradication. At Longwood, efforts have been underway for several years to get rid of invasives like multiflora rose, Norway maple, Canada thistle, spotted knapweed, and garlic mustard. “We can’t claim one hundred percent success, so this is an ongoing effort. We’re always looking for better ways to do it.” Longwood uses an integrated approach to eradication, including a combination of control methods such as physical removal, mowing and cutting, prescribed burning, targeted herbicides, and biological controls.

Another tactic is to evaluate new plants for their invasive potential before adding them to the approved list. “Is it a plant we want at Longwood? Do we want to promote it or not?” says Anisko. Answering these questions takes patience: some shrub trials take more than ten years so Longwood’s staff can acquire sufficient data.

Success against invasive plants will require a broad-based, collaborative effort that unites leaders in horticulture, nursery personnel, scientists, conservation groups, botanical gardens, garden clubs, garden writers, educational institutions, landscape professionals, government, and the public. 

So, what can you do? “The first logical step is to make sure we don’t add more invasive plants,” Anisko says. “In reality, many of them are still in nursery production. It’s not illegal to sell them, so the goal is to decrease demand.

“Home gardeners should go online to get the list of invasive plants from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and take it with them when they shop for plants,” he adds. “Become informed and make plant purchases accordingly.”

Anisko also recommends that people also look at what’s growing in the yard to see where they might be able to replace invasive plants with native species. Try to remove invasive plants before they become established, and don’t let them go to seed.

It’s well worth the effort. Invasives can cause expensive landscape maintenance issues and weeding problems for years to come. Many suburban properties—maybe yours—can be overrun with Japanese honeysuckle, multiflora rose, Japanese knotweed, and Oriental bittersweet. Native plants, on the other hand, usually have natural controls that keep them in balance.

“The only way we can reduce the problem is to become better informed,” says Anisko. “Understanding the damage that invasive plants can cause is essential to stopping their spread.”
  
For information about invasive plants in our area, and what you can do about them, visit http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/wildplant/invasive.aspx.