invasion

Last night on NBC there was a section on the invading eels in Florida. One came away from it thinking that it will be very hard to keep anything from being transplanted here, animal, vegetable or mineral. When I think of all my friends and someone else who has brought cuttings of this or that into the country, I know that that kind of thing will never stop. And let us not forget that the US has exported its own diseases, animals, etc. We cannot import roses from NZ, Australia, Italy, or Bulgaria because of "rose wilt" which has not been found in any of these countries. Big nurseries were able to have the ban established after WWII. So we buy the roses from European nurseries who have imported the roses from those countries. A bug from Australia, found on transhipped So.American lumber, is now invading our eucalypts, which for me is just fine as that awful tree has done great damage to our native California ones. With jets and fast ships coming here in greater numbers every year, only a body/luggage search of everyone will stop the invasion. And do you think that will ever happen? The idea of protection is laudable and as gardeners we should be very careful ourselves. What a tragedy it would be if we could not import Australian native plants that are so adaptable and useful in California at least.  Bill Grant, central California coast
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