Re: SPEC:Pseudacorus-An appreciation

In a message dated 97-04-02 04:49:44 EST, you write:

<< . Vigor and
 beauty, what more do you want in a garden plant?
  >>
I concur with the entire commentary.  I, too, have a cream form grown from
SIGNA seed. Mine is planted in a swampy area created by a deep drainage
ditch. The tall and strong foliage waves in the breeze a distinct improvement
on what nature provided. The cream form and species yellow grow side by side.

There is a valid use for invasive plants.  Artemesia under dry overhangs,
hemerocallis fulva on poor soil banks for instance. They often fill a need
where a more desirable plant cannot grow.  This is a gardener's choice.  We
canot fill all of our cultivated area with plants requiring constant care.
 Pseudacorus is stately on water's edge.

Bill Shear asks what is the evidence of "crowding native plants".  For my
area of upstate New York and the Adirondacks (where we had a summer place for
years) I have never seen a wild stand of pseudacorus.  All that I have seen
is waterside and  planted by a gardener.  Mind, it is cold here with a short
growing season, 100 days more or less, possibly preventing seeding.  Our
plants were introduced by covering cattails with a 4x8 sheet of plywood for
one year to provide the pseudacorus a fair start.  Both grow happily side by
side.  

My own stand has never spread by seeding that I have observed and I have
looked for seedlings as I wondered what the creams would produce.

I hope Ms. Whitehead will do a paper on foliage, a pet topic of mine, and
send it to the journal.  Pallida could top the list here.  Nominations
welcome.

Claire Peplowski
ECPep@aol.com
East Nassau, NY (zone 4) refraining from weather commentary (sun is shining).
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