Re: Warning about invasive grass!

**"Peter Loewer" t*@earthlink.net**

Dear Marge: This grass will seed the first year! Two blades will support a
tiny stem of spikelets.  It is invasive and now listed as being such. And I
am a careful writer and have been talking about invasive plants for years. I
wrote a book on weeds that is doing very well and zeroes in on control for
many of these plants. If you are not having a problem, that's great for you!
Because you are free from this plants invasive qualities, never assume that
other gardeners will be as graced as you. When in Ashville, come see how far
this grass can spread, especially when people allow dogs to run unleashed.
Peter
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marge Talt" <mtalt@hort.net>
To: "Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum"
<gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 2:27 AM
Subject: Re: [GWL] Warning about invasive grass!


> Well, Peter, I've been growing P. 'Moudry' for more than 20 years.
> While it does seed heavily, I have yet to find it many feet from the
> parent plant, certainly not more than say 5 or 6 feet away, depending
> on which way the flowering heads get mashed down in winter.  It does
> want to cover the ground around the parent clumps and needs weeding
> in spring if you don't cut off the 'bottle brushes' before they
> shatter - something I seldom get around to, so I get to pull out the
> babies in spring; not an arduous task, though boring.
>
> I don't doubt that some animal walking through the clumps could carry
> off a seed or three, but I have yet to see any animal do this.
> Probably some enthusiastic dog would be the likeliest; don't have one
> so don't know, but wild animals and cats don't walk through the
> clumps I have in various places in my garden.  Clumps are substantial
> and most animals would go around rather than through.
>
> Plants will flower about 2 years from seed germination.  Seed can
> germinate at 68ºF (20ºC), but if they do not within three or four
> weeks, then they need a cold stratification at 24-39ºF (-4 to +4ºC)
> for two to four weeks, according to Tom Clothier's Seed Germination
> Database.  I've not tried sowing seed in a controlled situation for
> this one.  I can find no data on the web concerning seed viability,
> but I would hazard, from the behavior of my  plants, that it is
> relatively short-lived.  Either it germinates the spring / early
> summer after it's dropped or it never germinates.  Many grasses have
> short seed viability, but I understand there is some variation on the
> different species of Pennisetum.
>
> Situations will differ in different places and, like many plants,
> this one can become a problem in the deep south (i.e. Florida) when
> planted in moist conditions.  Many plants are over exuberant in the
> south that barely hang on in the north, as you know.   So, any
> warnings about plant aggressiveness need to be tempered by
> location:-)  For those with severe deer depredation problems, this is
> one plant they will not touch.
>
> P. 'Moudry' will be unlikely to survive happily in USDA zones colder
> than 6, although I have seen it listed as hardy to z 5 by one
> nursery.  U of Wisc. did a trial of ornamental grasses in 1995 -
> 2000, at their Noer Facility (USDA z 4), and most of the P. 'Moudry'
> died, so they put it in their Class 3 - not hardy.  I would expect
> that there would be less seeding at the far north end of the plant's
> hardiness range because it blooms so late in the season that it might
> not be able to ripen before killing frost.  Mine is just coming into
> bloom now at the end of September and seeds are generally not ripe
> until into November here.   I also find that, while it will grow in
> part shade, if it is too shady, the clumps tend to die out in a few
> years.
>
> While I class this plant as one that I certainly would not plant if I
> weren't willing to weed out seedlings, I really do not class it as
> "invasive" in the true sense of the word.  Any plant that sets viable
> seed will try to reproduce itself if given the right conditions - I'd
> put our native asters far ahead of P. 'Moudry' in the race to
> dominate the world.  I must pull 100 aster seedlings to every P.
> 'Moudry' seedling in my garden:-)
>
> Personally, I think we, as writers, have to be careful using the word
> "invasive".  It gets bandied about a lot these days and often applied
> to any plant that seeds freely or covers ground in any way in any
> part of the country...sometimes very desirable traits, depending on
> your goals and where you garden.   I think we need to be responsible
> and inform our readers when a plant is known to be aggressive in any
> way in some area, but we need to be very judicious in our use of the
> word 'invasive'.
>
> Rather than "invasive", I prefer 'aggressive' or 'robust' or
> 'rambunctious' for plants that have horticultural value and are worth
> having if you are willing to keep an eye on them.  I keep "invasive"
> for true thugs like Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard), Kudzu,
> Phytolacca americana (pokeweed), wild grape, Parthenocissus
> quinquefolia (Virginia creeper), Glechoma hederacea  (ground ivy -
> creeping Charlie), Duchesnea indica and Lonicera  japonica 'Halliana'
> (Japanese honeysuckle), to name a few winners of my most unfavorite
> weed award.
>
> I do think it unwise for companies to sell P. 'Moudry' - or any
> aggressive plant - without mentioning that it can be aggressive, but
> I doubt we'll ever see that happen, esp. considering that it is
> propagated and sold by Monrovia, who do not mention any aggressive
> seeding qualities in their information about it and who seem to
> supply most of the US garden centers and probably those big box
> stores.
>
> Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
> mtalt@hort.net
> Editor:  Gardening in Shade
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> ----------
> > From: Peter Loewer <thewildgardener@earthlink.net>
> >
> > Group: Just a warning about a potentially dangerous grass. The only
> reason
> > I'm writing concerns finding plants for sale this past weekend at
> two local
> > box stores. It's Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Moudry' [P.
> alopecuroides
> > 'Viridescens'], or the black-flowering pennisetum. This is a
> beautiful grass
> > that was not imported from New Zealand and named in honor of a
> native tribe,
> > nor was it, as rumored, a horticultural form found by the
> Cincinnati Parks
> > Department (seed actually was came from the Baltimore City
> Horticulturist,
> > G. Moudry), and while strikingly beautiful, it is extremely
> invasive. Upon
> > ripening, the bristly seeds attach themselves to people and
> animals, not to
> > mention the wind, and are soon invading your lawn, your garden,
> your
> > neighbor's lawn two doors down the street or perennial borders two
> or three
> > blocks away. This grass is attractive just in growth but when in
> flower,
> > sporting six-inch black plumes on eighteen-inch stems, it's almost
> worth the
> > trouble of cutting back those flowering stems before the seeds
> mature. And
> > that's a job you must do! If you don't--Peter Loewer
> >
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