Re: Salvias as noxious weeds
- Subject: Re: Salvias as noxious weeds
- From: A* L*
- Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 17:27:01 +0100
"Richard F. Dufresne" wrote:
>
> Lately, I have discovered that Salvia sclarea (meadow sage) and S. pratensis
> (meadow sage) have been put on the state of Washington's noxious weed list.
> Has anyone observed that they escape and colonize the way morning glories,
> ivy, or holly do? As a lover of Salvias, I am concerned about separating
> the really nasty invasives like S. aethiopis, S. verbenacea, S. reflexa from
> easily controlled self-sowing sages like S. roemeriana and S. greggii. Is
> S. forskaohlii well-behaved or noxious?
>
> Neither of the first two are invasive in England, the slugs and rains sort out S sclarea during every season except (very dry) Summers. S forskaohlii is probably the same but it marginally survived last Winter outside albeit in a very reduced state. However it is a very handsome plant in one of our tunnels which receives inadequate irrigation. S pratensis is a well behaved English native...we can never have too much of it. I collected Salvia verbenacea on my ex-wife's farm in the Corbieres where it clings on in spite of her sheep and goats and where once the snow is melted there is no more moisture until the Summer mountain thunderstorms which provide too rapid a run off for the water to penetrate the rock. Never tried it outside here and the Pyrustra moths which wreck all our Labiates ensure that it doesn't go berserk in a tunnel. But even they won't tackle S verticillata, undoubtedly my pet hate among all Salvias, a great hairy, dull coloured thing that seeds itself in!
to all the other pots choking their inhabitants to death. Definitely one to be avoided but I don't doubt that it behaves itself impeccably in California where the climate couldn't be more different to ours!
Anthony
