Re: Buddlejas, invasive and not

Elizabeth Waterman wrote:
> 
> Buddleja  x pickei (B.alterneria x B. crispa) was a favorite
> 
> It is  relatively low growing, delightfully fragrant, light
> lavender and not as attractive to the Buddleja budworm  that
> > has become such a pest around the SF bay area.
> Now my problem is to find a replacement.

This budworm sounds like an effort on the part of nature to control the
unrestricted spread of these exotics (or at least B.davidii) as
presumably any plant which suffers from it certainly won't produce seed.
If this could be persuaded to concentrate mainly on the "feral" plants,
the invasion could at least be stopped from spreading further.

it seems pretty likely a budworm attacking Buddleja must have come
originlly from the plant's native home (China) and is doubtless one of
the natural checks and balances I talked of in another posting, which
keep plants in balance with their ecosystem and prevent them from
becoming a nuisence in their original homeland.

I agree with Deborah that for big seeders among exotics a responsible
act of regular deadheading can go a long way to avoiding problems of
unwanted spread. However I hesitated to recommend it for Buddlea davidii
because of the great size to which it can grow.

Moira
-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.     Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
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