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I've been avoiding writing about a situation I had last summer that covers multiple topics, but now that it's the dead of winter and I'm in semi-hibernation I though I'd share it with ya'll and seek your comments.  It's not short.
     Every few years I write an article on Lythrum.  It is a plant that is both magnificently beautiful and yet an environmental nightmare.  I have been pushing for it to be banned, I have asked growers to stop growing it and I have begged gardeners and designers to stop using it.  Mostly, to no avail.  Most gardeners are unaware of the dangers, most growers find it too lucrative not to grow (if they want it, we will grow it) and the designers...well, I won't even go there.
    So last summer I penned my update article.  I explained the perils of the plant, the fact that there may really not be such a thing as a 'safe' Lythrum and that several states have banned it's importation, sale and propagation.  I explained how this plant is managing to destroy wetland habitat and change our wetland environment in our salt wetlands and our freshwater wetlands and wetland buffers.  I also explained that a recently discovered beetle, which is host specific, shows promise as a consumer of the plant but that the beetle has been painfully slow to establish itself.
    Well, the next week the letters to the editor came in.  There were two.  One was from the director of the Pine Barrens Commission who thought the article was terrific and would I work with them on a comprehensive plan to battle this plant.  The other was from a nursery owner who was quite irate that I should suggest that gardeners boycott garden centers selling the plant and that in fact it was a very pretty plant and there was no evidence that it was so destructive.  And, in fact, they were so upset by my article that they were withdrawing all their advertising from The Press.
    Wait, "The Press?"  Must have been a typo...I write for The Southampton Press not The Press and the nursery they said they owned was in an area where the paper didn't have any circulation. 
    Well, much to my surprise I discovered that the newspaper had spun off a new edition called....you got it...The Press, in a new area and had neglected to ask if they could carry my column in it in direct violation of my contract.  Now of course I have little recourse aside from suing them and all that will get me is a large legal bill and a small reward.  I did get a little giggle out of it though since the advertiser had pulled out and several days earlier they had given me a raise.
     So, what have I learned.  Well, that a contract is only as good as the good faith it's signed with.  That I can still generate editorial comment from both sides and that there are still some very stupid people in retail gardening.  And, of course, that it's time for a new contract based on the increased circulation.  But to this day, the thought of a garden center owner insisting that Lythrum really isn't an invasive plant leaves me so, so perplexed.

Andrew Messinger
The Hampton Gardener
The Hampton Gardener is a Registered Trade Mark
(Published every Thursday in the Southampton Press)

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